wfn.org | ADRA Continues Relief Activities In North Korea

[APD <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

July 16, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

ADRA Continues Relief Activities In Famine-Stricken 
North Korea

Lentigny/Switzerland.     The Adventist 
Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) continues 
to provide relief to famine-affected residents in 
North Korea with a program to build solar kitchens 
for cooking, and delivering necessary supplies. The 
solar kitchens are being installed in various 
institutions at the request of the North Korean 
government

ADRA Switzerland is beginning its second phase of 
constructing and installing solar kitchens for various 
institutions that host children, including 
orphanages, hospitals, kindergartens, day-care 
centres and others. To date, ADRA Switzerland has 
built and installed 100 of the units, funded by ADRA 
donors in Switzerland and the United States. The 
same number of kitchens will be produced in the 
second phase, doubling the number of solar 
kitchens currently in the country. The new phase is 
being funded by the Office for the Coordination of 
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

ADRA was first contacted about the solar kitchens in 
1998 by the North Korean embassy in Switzerland. 
In June 1999, an official branch of ADRA 
Switzerland was placed inside the North Korean 
borders to implement the program. The long-term 
goal of ADRA, through the program agreement with 
the North Korean government, is to build 1,000 
solar kitchens.

ADRA Switzerland sent over two mobile solar 
kitchen units last year, which are being used by 
ADRA Project Director Albert Mettler to educate the 
institutional leaders on how to use the simple units. 
"The units are made of parabolic mirrors that trace 
the sun during the day, and direct it to one spot for 
utilizing the energy," explains Joerg Fehr, ADRA 
Switzerland country director. "It is done with a 
simple pendulum clock, made of bicycle spare parts. 
We wanted to make it with simple and available 
parts so that they would be able to repair it if it 
breaks."

North Koreans, under the instruction of Mettler, 
manufacture the mirrors. The mirrors are nine 
square meters per unit, taking one to four units to 
make a functioning kitchen. The number of units 
needed depends on the size of the institution.

"ADRA has a very good relationship with the Korean 
government," adds Fehr, "and the work we are 
doing is well appreciated. We are currently 
negotiating for more possible projects in the near 
future." ADRA Switzerland's efforts to date are 
valued at approximately half a million US dollars 
(approx. 800'000 Swiss Francs).

ADRA is providing other relief activities in the 
famine-stricken country. In the next several weeks, 
ADRA Switzerland will deliver a second shipment of 
two, 20-foot containers of Weet-Bix® cereal, sent 
with funds from ADRA donors in Australia. Each 
container can reportedly feed thousands.

During the past winter, ADRA delivered food, 
clothing, shoes, soap and coal for heating needy 
orphanages and hospitals in North Korea, funded by 
the German government through ADRA. The food 
included such items as potatoes, dry soup, flour and 
vegetable seeds. The clothes were manufactured in 
North Korean factories.

Established in 1984, ADRA is an independent, 
humanitarian agency with a presence in more than 
120 countries worldwide. (213/2000)