wfn.org | CWS/NCCCUSA Delivers Emergency Aid to Iraq

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A>
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

NCC12/31/96                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TWO CWS STAFFERS DELIVER FOOD, MEDICAL SUPPLIES TO
IRAQIS
SUFFERING FROM MALNUTRITION, SHORTAGES

NEW YORK, N.Y., Dec. 31 ---- Two
representatives of Church World Service, the
humanitarian assistance arm of the National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., returned
from a Christmas time mission to Baghdad, Iraq,
deeply moved by the difficult conditions of life
that they witnessed.

David M. Weaver, CWS/NCC Middle East Office
Director, and Mel Lehman, CWS Constituency
Information and Development Director, went to
Baghdad Dec. 21-27 with food and medical supplies.
The aid is part of an ongoing relief effort
implemented by the Middle East Council of Churches
with support from international Christian relief
agencies.  CWS contributed a total of $300,000 worth
of blankets, medicines, food, sewing kits and school
kits in 1996.

The Church World Service staffers' presence in
Baghdad at Christmas was intended as a symbol of
Christian compassion and commitment to the people of
Iraq who are suffering badly as a result of six
years of UN-imposed economic sanctions.

"he conditions of the hospitals to which we
delivered medical supplies were even worse than the
reports had indicated," said Mr. Weaver.  "There is
a near total lack of critical medicines and basic
supplies, like sutures, blood bags, and catheters.
Basic medical equipment like pumps and monitors have
broken down and are unrepairable due to the lack of
spare parts.  Even beds, mattresses and blankets are
falling apart.

"Doctors are improvising and reviving old
methods in an attempt to compensate," he said.  "We
literally saw children suffering and dying from
treatable diseases."

Mr. Lehman described some of the horrifying
situations that he and Mr. Weaver encountered:

 * A hospital that postponed nine critical
Caesarian sections until the morning the CWS
representatives arrived with surgical
sutures.  "Caesarian births in Iraq are now
life-threatening because sutures are not
available and many women now bleed to death,"
Mr. Lehman said.

 * A three-year-old boy, burned over 30 percent
of his body, lying in his hospital bed
screaming uncontrollably because there were
no anesthetics to ease his pain.

 * Hospital blankets, sheets and mattresses worn
and torn long past their useful life.  Mike
Nahhal, the MECC relief coordinator in
Baghdad, said CWS has become the major
supplier of blankets to hospitals in Iraq,
providing 50 percent of blankets now on
hospital beds.

 * Adding to patients' misery -- hospital
ventilation systems that no longer work.

 * A family that sold the interior doors of
their house to buy food for their children.

Mr. Weaver and Mr. Lehman said that the newly-
implemented United Nations "oil-for-food" deal will
help to alleviate the worst of the suffering, but
emphasized that much more will be needed for months
and perhaps years to come.  They called upon both
governments and humanitarian agencies to do more now
to prevent further suffering and needless deaths.

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