wfn.org | United Methodists seek volunteers for Kosovo

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

March 16, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-24-71BP{146}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this story.

By United Methodist News Service

A variety of work team opportunities in Kosovo are being offered this year
by United Methodist Volunteers in Mission.

The diverse projects include rebuilding homes, installing playgrounds and
assessing flocks of sheep. Individual volunteers and teams can be scheduled
in late spring, summer or fall, according to the Rev. Robert Walton, an
executive with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Walton
visited Kosovo in late February with other board staff and jurisdictional
volunteers-in-mission coordinators.

Help is still desperately needed. "The destruction is just so evident
everywhere you go," he said.

Kosovo is rebuilding after last year's brief war in which United Nations
forces drove Serbian soldiers out of the Yugoslavian province. The Serbs had
been waging a "cleansing" campaign against ethnic Albanians.

One of the volunteer projects is in the town of Bare, where the United
Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has worked on winterizing houses. The
group toured some of those houses and met with the parents' council, which
UMCOR helped organize. 

Jeannie Blankenbaker, another Board of Global Ministries executive, recalled
meeting a 12-year-old boy there who had become "the man of the house" after
his father and brothers were killed during the war. Villagers made sure he
had help in caring for his mother and two older sisters, she said.

The rebuilding work in Bare will include cleanup, carpentry, roofing and the
finishing of houses. A center for women and youth also must be rebuilt. A
team from West Virginia already is scheduled to build several playgrounds in
Bare this summer.

As in other parts of the country, local people often will be involved in the
process. "They were very clear that when volunteers come in they will work
beside them," Walton said.

Besides the housing work, volunteers are needed to raise money for and then
install other playgrounds in Kosovo. Funds also are needed for renovating
and installing computer equipment for a women and children's rehabilitation
center in Pristina. The center will provide educational, recreational and
psychological services to those traumatized by the war.

In addition, volunteers are needed to:

·	Teach English, computer skills, drama, dance, music and grant
writing or fund-raising skills at youth centers.
·	Gather materials for teachers of English as a second language and
help those instructors improve their speaking and teaching skills.
·	Visit 600 farms where chickens have been placed, to interview
farmers and photograph families.
·	Gather information at farms to use in the final assessment of
UMCOR's potato and onion project.
·	Install computer equipment at the women and children's center in
Pristina and train staff to use it.

One to three veterinarians or farmers with extensive experience with sheep
are needed to check on 120 flocks in four different villages, providing the
sheep with de-worming treatments and vitamins.

Interested volunteers should contact the jurisdictional coordinators of
United Methodist Volunteers in Mission for further information. The
coordinators are Beverly Nolte of Des Moines, Iowa, for the North Central
Jurisdiction, (515) 237-8545 or e-mail bnmedical@aol.com; Gregory Forrester
of Cortland, N.Y., Northeastern, (607) 756-8267 or
Gforrester@compuserve.com; Thalia Matherson of Dallas, South Central, (214)
692-9081 or scjumc@mindspring.com; Nick Elliott of Atlanta, Southeastern,
(404) 659-5060 or sejumvim@compuserve.com; and Janet and Kurt Kaiser of
Sandpoint, Idaho, (208) 263-4094 or love2trvl@nidlink.com.

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United Methodist News Service
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