From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


CWS DISTRIBUTION IN HAITI


From "Ann Walle" <awalle@churchworldservice.org>
Date Mon, 15 Mar 2004 11:33:11 -0500

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE BEGINS SECURE DISTRIBUTION THIS WEEK
OF ITS FIRST AID SHIPMENT TO HAITI

Agency Urging Long-term Recovery Support, Protective Status for Asylum
Seekers

NEW YORK, NY- Mon. 3/15-Global humanitarian agency Church World Service
plans to begin distribution this week of an aid shipment of food and
medicines for Haiti-its first in the current crisis.  The aid-valued at
$151,003-arrived in the Dominican Republic last week.  Church World
Service is also urging long-term recovery support for Haiti, with
emphasis on health, education and development.

Announcement of the aid shipment's arrival follows Wednesday's
Senate hearing on Haiti in which Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) raised
concerns about stalled distribution of food stockpiles.   
Church World Service is also advocating in Washington for U.S.
protection of Haitian asylum seekers and has issued an initial $50,000
fundraising appeal to support its humanitarian response in Haiti. 

In the face of continued food distribution difficulties, CWS Emergency
Response Program staff are in the region this week to coordinate secure
distribution of its aid shipment. The supplies will be distributed
through CWS's on-the-ground partners in the Dominican Republic and
Haiti, for use by in-country Haitians and Haitians now in the Dominican
Republic.

The Church World Service aid shipment includes 17,280 pounds of
dehydrated food packed in two-pound bags, 30 IMA (Interchurch Medical
Assistance) standard medicine boxes, and eight IMA disaster medicine
boxes. When hydrated, each pound of rice/potato/vegetable blend yields
25 one-cup servings, for a total of 432,000 servings.  Each of the eight
disaster medicine boxes contains enough medicine to serve an estimated
115 people, with approximately 90% antibiotics to treat medical
conditions common to disaster situations, while each of the 30 standard
medicine boxes serves the basic health needs of 1,000 persons for three
months. 

According to CWS Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough, the
agency's advocacy for long-term assistance for Haiti is intended to
prevent another repeat cycle of failed state, conflict, and
intervention. 

"We are of course immediately concerned with the basic food security,
medical, health, and sanitation needs of the Haitian people," says
McCullough. "Although the situation may not be defined by
international standards as a humanitarian crisis, the people of Haiti
were showing signs of malnutrition well before the recent conflict,"
he reports.

"But," McCullough emphasizes, "Church World Service is looking
beyond the current emergency. We and our partners will be exploring the
creation of programs that will best help the people of this neglected
country to build a nation that is theirs and that gives Haitians at
every level of society the skills and resources to grow and sustain
themselves. 

"We are urging all involved international parties to think in those
terms," he explains. "We are talking about the humanitarian
empowerment and capacity building of a people, not the current political
idea of nation building."

"This is a possible job," says McCullough. "We are talking about
eight million people who are the U.S.'s close neighbors in every
way."

In Wednesday's (3/10) Senate hearing, Senate Foreign Relations
committee members asked U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega
to encourage the administration to consider increasing the current
budget for assistance to Haiti from $52 million to approximately $150
million. 

Senate members also suggested to Noriega that Haiti should be freed
from foreign debt owed, and that more U.S. troops should be considered
as part of a key, next-step effort to disarm members of all Haitian
factions.

On concerns about U.S. treatment of Haitian asylum seekers, CWS's
McCullough, says, "We're urging that the U.S. provide temporary
protected status for Haitian refugees who are fleeing Haiti, rather than
returning them to a still-violent and unsafe homeland."

The Bush administration remains adamant about returning all Haitian
refugees picked up at sea, and has reportedly returned about 900
individuals to Haiti. Even with current U.S., Canadian, French, and
Chilean peacekeeping troops numbered at about 2,550, at least half a
dozen skirmishes have been fought since troops' arrival less than two
weeks ago. 

"We are also requesting," says McCullough,  "that the U.S. grant
temporary protected status to Haitians presently in the U.S. who fear
for their safety if they are deported. And that includes," McCullough
adds, "those Haitian asylum seekers who are being held in detention in
this country and whose status has not been resolved."

Church World Service is working in conjunction with the Department of
State, other refugee resettlement agencies, and CWS's own ecumenical
partners in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic to accommodate a
possible flow of refugees to authorized refugee sites. 

CWS is one of the ten Joint Voluntary Agencies that the Department Of
State engages with when resettling refugees in the U.S., and maintains
offices in Miami specializing in legal advocacy for asylum seekers.

In a March 1 letter to President Bush, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) said
U.S. treatment of fleeing Haitian refugees "is in flagrant violation of
our legal obligations under the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol
Relating to the Status of Refugees." Kennedy urged the administration to
"honor our nation's obligations to ensure that such protection is
available and effective."

In March 2003, Church World Service hosted the Haitian Migration Crisis
Conference in Washington, D.C. Keynoted by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA),
the forum gathered government, humanitarian advocates, and policy makers
who pressed for a turnaround in discriminatory treatment of Haitian
asylum seekers.   

In addition to its Haitian and Dominican NGO (non-governmental
organization) partners, CWS is conferring with the Caribbean Conference
of Churches and the Latin America Council of Churches, who are similarly
voicing support for the Haitian people.

Church World Service is a cooperative ministry of 36 denominations,
providing sustainable self-help and development, disaster relief, and
refugee assistance in partnership worldwide.  

EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE: Individuals or groups wishing to make financial
contributions for Haitian material aid may send checks or money orders
designate: Haiti Crisis.

								###

CONTACTS:

Ann Walle/CWS/New York
Phone: (212) 870 2654
e-mail: awalle@churchworldservice.org 

Jan Dragin/New York/Boston - 24/7
Phone: (781) 925 1526
e-mail: jdragin@gis.net 

---
Send E-mail address changes to: nccc_usa@ncccusa.org


Browse month . . . Browse month (sort by Source) . . . Advanced Search & Browse . . . WFN Home