wfn.org | AFSC Ships Clothing to Chechnya and Moscow

[RByler@afsc.org]

For Immediate Release
February 28, 1997
Contact:  J.Ron Byler (215/241-7060)
or Aishah Shahidah Simmons (215/241-7056)

Foundation Grant Funds AFSC Shipments of Clothing to Chechnya and Moscow

PHILADELPHIA - A $25,000 grant from the Joseph Plan Foundation has enabled
the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to send two shipments of warm
clothing valued at more than $90,000 for arrival in Chechnya and Moscow in
late February 1997.  
	"There are very few organizations doing relief work in Chechnya," said Tom
Moore, director of the Material Aids Program for AFSC, "and this grant will
help us get winter clothing to refugees and children who really need our
help."  The shipment of heavy winter clothing to Moscow will be distributed
to refugees living on the outskirts of the city.
	In Moscow, AFSC is working with Friends House Moscow and the Brotherhood of
Compassion.  The Chechnya shipment was sent to Nazran, near Grozny, an area
devastated by war, where AFSC will be working with a former Quaker Peace and
Service worker who has begun a new peace center for peacemaking efforts
between Chechnya and Russia.
	AFSC has worked in this region since the 1920s when AFSC shipped food and
medicine to Russia for famine relief.  Prior to the end of the Cold War,
AFSC's East-West Program coordinated Soviet-American seminars on disarmament
and human rights.  In response to an earthquake in 1988, AFSC helped build a
health clinic in Soviet Armenia.
	The grant from the Joseph Plan Foundation more than covered all the
shipping expenses for sending the 23 tons of clothing to Chechnya and
Moscow.  The remaining grant money will be used to purchase food and medical
supplies for refugees in the region. 
	For more information, please contact Tom Moore, director of AFSC's material
aids program, at (215) 241-7041.
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The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization which
includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace
and humanitarian service.  Its work is based on the Quaker belief in the
worth of every person, and faith in the power of love to overcome violence
and injustice.
J.Ron Byler
Director of Media Relations
American Friends Service Committee
PH: 215/241-7060
FAX: 215/241-7275
E-MAIL: RByler@afsc.org
http://www.afsc.org