wfn.org | Stop Hunger Now to reach children in Sierra Leone

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Jan. 4, 2000	News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-31-33-71B{003}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #004.

By United Methodist News Service

Stop Hunger Now is developing a $250,000 relief project for Sierra Leone
that will focus on holistic care for children affected by poverty and war.

The new children's center would represent "the largest single project that
we've ever undertaken," said the Rev. Ray Buchanan, the United Methodist
pastor who officially launched the agency two years ago. Stop Hunger Now,
based in Raleigh, N.C., provides emergency food and medical supplies to
relief organizations working around the world.

The Sierra Leone project offers an opportunity to create a model program
that can be duplicated in other parts of Africa "where the need is just as
great," Buchanan said. The project also ties in with the United Methodist
Council of Bishops' current emphasis on children and poverty, he pointed
out.

"What sets us apart from so many other organizations is that we're modeling
a new type of relief ministry," Buchanan explained. "We actively seek out
partnerships. We don't do anything by ourselves."

For example, several local churches and two United Methodist annual
(regional) conferences already are involved in the Sierra Leone project, and
Buchanan plans to seek support from the United Methodist Committee on Relief
and the denomination's Board of Global Ministries as well. In Sierra Leone,
partners include the United Methodist Church and other nongovernmental
groups.

The idea for the center began with the Rev. John Yambasu, a Sierra Leone
pastor who works as a "missioner of hope" with the Board of Global
Ministries. His original idea, according to Buchanan, was to set up an
orphanage for 50 to 100 street kids. The project has since expanded to
become a "center for rehabilitation and reintegration of disadvantaged
children," providing food, shelter, education, vocational training, health
care and counseling. The center will open in Bo, a provincial capital of
Sierra Leone.

Buchanan said he will travel to Sierra Leone in January to "get things
rolling" on the project.

Stop Hunger Now also continues its work in other parts of the world.
Buchanan has received an official request for assistance from the president
of Chechnya, the province at war with Russia. He said he is working with his
contacts in Kazakhstan to provide aid to both those countries.

In November, the agency formed a partnership with the United Methodist
Alaska Missionary Conference to provide desperately needed food relief to
far eastern Russia. "The remote villages in this peninsula were in bad
straits," he explained. "They had decimated their reindeer population.
Several villages were eating dogs."

An initial grant of $5,000 from Stop Hunger Now was used by Bog Pomosh, a
newly formed Russian relief coalition, to buy culturally acceptable food --
primarily seal, walrus or whale meat. The Board of Global Ministries,
through its Russia Initiative program, also is providing funding.

The program is unique not only in the type of food being provided but also
because of "the native to native contact," Buchanan said.

Once the accountability of the receiving organizations is confirmed, he
hopes to substantially increase aid from Stop Hunger Now to this remote,
isolated area. "The needs are far greater than just food," he added. "The
economy is so bad in the area that some of the villages have been without
electricity for months."

Another focus this year will be on Vietnam, where Stop Hunger Now has formed
a partnership with Children of Vietnam, a new ministry headquartered in
Salem, N.C., and run by David Wilson, a United Methodist layman. A $5,000
grant was used by Children of Vietnam to buy 50,000 pounds of rice for an
orphanage and for a feeding program for street children in Danang.

Stop Hunger Now also provided Wilson with seed packets and at least 10,000
doses of worm medicine. "Basically, he was able to provide 100 families with
a degree of food security," Buchanan said. He will visit Vietnam in March to
plan further joint efforts with the group.

Stop Hunger Now has distributed more than $10 million in food and medical
aid to 22 countries since its founding. Other recent projects have included:

·	Shipping seven containers of medical equipment, valued at $1
million, to Indonesia, through a partnership with four different foundations
there.
·	Joining with Operation Blessing in an effort to get seed potatoes to
Romania.
·	Allocating $1,000 to United Methodists in the Philippines for a
small-business project.

More information about Stop Hunger Now or about making donations is
available toll free by calling (888) 501-8440.
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United Methodist News Service
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