wfn.org | United Methodists, Jewish group team up for aid to Ethiopia

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 12, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
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By United Methodist News Service

The United Methodist director of a food relief organization has formed a
partnership with a Jewish group to help save thousands of lives in Ethiopia
this fall.

Stop Hunger Now and the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry have
teamed up to deal with an expected malaria outbreak in the Gondar highlands
of Ethiopia. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) also is
contributing to the effort.

In an area hard hit by famine, Gondar's 10,000 inhabitants have been living
on 10 pounds of food a month apiece, according to the Rev. Ray Buchanan of
Stop Hunger Now. Summer rains have caused mosquito breeding that could
trigger a malaria epidemic in October and November with up to a 50 percent
mortality rate because of malnourishment.

With no access to expensive preventive medicine, the practical solution is
to provide an adequate food supply to beef up residents' immune systems.
"The only thing we can do is put as much food into that area as soon as
possible," Buchanan said.

His organization already had provided financial assistance to the North
American Conference's feeding program for schoolchildren in Gondar before
the famine. Buchanan learned about the current crisis when he and Barbara
Ribakove Gordon, the conference's executive director, were speakers at an
Aug. 20 program on Ethiopia at a Raleigh, N.C., synagogue.

Buchanan immediately committed $25,000 from Stop Hunger Now to the
conference's effort to get more food to the region before October, when the
malaria season begins. On the strength of that commitment, the conference's
Ethiopia country director, Andy Goldman, already has purchased $10,000 worth
of food that was being distributed in September.

The North American Conference on Ethiopia Jewry received a check for the
total pledge of $25,000 on Sept. 11. That amount included $10,000 from
UMCOR. "I cannot tell you how immensely grateful we are," Gordon said in a
Sept. 12 interview. "It will save a lot of lives."

In acknowledgment of the interfaith funding, the conference has arranged for
Kebbele, a local peasant association, to select 50 of the neediest families
among the non-Jewish neighbors to include in the food distribution.

But, Gordon pointed out, "the Jews are essentially in a more difficult
position than most of their neighbors because they do not have farms. They
are displaced persons."

While Gondar traditionally has had Jewish residents, many moved to Israel.
The remainder have come from villages "miles and miles away" to settle near
the small Israeli consulate in hopes of also joining family members in
Israel. "Many of these people have been there as long as seven years
already," Gordon explained. "The processing (of visas) is very, very slow."

The conference had been running a six-day-a-week lunch feeding program for
nearly 2,400 children in Gondar, but, after famine struck, that was
inadequate. Gordon said that during her last visit in June she was appalled
to find out that 90 percent of the children were malnourished. In addition,
the combination of famine and roads being washed out by summer rains has
made it difficult to find food locally or truck it in, driving costs up.

The $25,000 grant through Stop Hunger Now allows the conference to purchase
tef, a nourishing grain indigenous to Ethiopia, and beans for distribution
to families. Goldman also was able to buy carrots for the children's lunch
program recently, Gordon said.

In addition to the UMCOR funding, Stop Hunger Now used money from its new
immediate response fund -- established with grants from Lags Lageshulte and
Ed Droste, who own a number of restaurants in the Hooter's chain - to
fulfill its initial commitment.

But Buchanan is expecting another $15,000 from UMCOR and is appealing for
more donations for emergency assistance to this and other communities in
Ethiopia. The organization also has been involved in a street feeding
program in Addis Ababa run by Hope Enterprises, an independent Christian
organization.

Stop Hunger Now provides food, commodities and other emergency direct relief
to agencies and organizations already active in crisis areas around the
world. Donations can be mailed to 2501 Clark Ave., Suite 301, Raleigh, N.C.
77607-7213. More information is available by calling toll-free (888)
501-8440.

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United Methodist News Service
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