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  SCOBA
   The Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas
    8 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10021

INTERNATIONAL ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHARITIES (IOCC)
110 West Road, Suite 360, Baltimore, Md. 21204 -- Tel: (410) 243-9820
Fax: (410) 243-9824 Web: www.iocc.org -- E-mail: news@iocc.org

For immediate release
July 29, 2003

FARM OFFERS WAY FOR ARGENTINE SCHOOLS TO GROW FOOD

Buenos Aires, Argentina (IOCC) -- "Are you here to bring us food?"
The question sticks in Helena Davonis' mind. It's stayed with her ever
since the day
she and some of her students at Athenagoras High School delivered food to a
needy elementary
school in a poor part of Buenos Aires.

Ms. Davonis, a Greek-Argentinean teacher, leads a group of young Orthodox
Christian volunteers called Puerto Esperanza ("Port Hope"), an agency of
the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and South America. Since May
2002, months after the collapse of the Argentine economy, Puerto Esperanza
has been working hard to meet the food needs of an increasingly desperate
population in Buenos Aires and beyond.

Now Puerto Esperanza is partnering with International Orthodox Christian
Charities (IOCC), the humanitarian aid agency of Orthodox Christians. IOCC
is in Argentina at the invitation of His Eminence Metropolitan Tarasios of
Buenos Aires and South America, to assist in the startup of a church-based
humanitarian agency. Until that agency is formed, Metropolitan Tarasios has
given his blessing for Puerto Esperanza to act on his behalf to help the
poor of Argentina.

The partnership between IOCC and Puerto Esperanza began with a visit by Ms.
Davonis and some of her students to a poor elementary school in the La
Matanza district of Buenos Aires, where they took a minibus filled with
food and delivered it to the school. As the group was leaving, a little
girl from a nearby kindergarten walked up and asked, "Are you here to bring
us food?"

The girl took Ms. Davonis by the hand and led the group to Trencito de
Papel ("Paper Toy Train") kindergarten, which educates and feeds about 120
underprivileged children in a part of town blighted by trash dumps.

The school, like many others in Argentina, lost its government funding in
December 2002 and has been struggling to keep its doors open ever since.
Left without the means to pays its teachers, maintain its facilities or
care for its students, school officials appealed to Puerto Esperanza for
help.
"This kindergarten would have shut down, but some people in the community
decided they weren't going to let that happen," said Bill Datch, IOCC's
Argentina liaison officer.

Puerto Esperanza and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese raised enough funds to
continue the school's lunch program, donated furniture and equipment to the
school, and acquired a nearby 48,000-square-foot plot of arable land for
use as an organic farm, or "huerta."

The latter will serve multiple purposes - growing food for the kindergarten
students, generating income for the school and its staff, creating jobs -
and could become a model for cash-strapped schools throughout Argentina,
Datch said.  Such an approach would address a number of the social ills
that have resulted from Argentina's economic collapse, including
malnutrition, school absenteeism, child labor/begging, juvenile
delinquency, and substance abuse.

To date, the "huerta" has been cleared of debris, surrounded by a fence,
and equipped with a guardhouse, all with volunteer labor. Winter crops have
been planted, and a caretaker has moved into his partially completed
residence, Datch said.	With the first harvest not expected until
September, IOCC has contributed funds that will ensure the children, their
families and elderly pensioners in the community are fed in the meantime.

IOCC also is offering technical support and supervising the labor
associated with the project. Future plans call for the establishment of a
henhouse and a bakery, and marketing of the farm's products to raise
additional income. "We hope that by the end of the first year, the farm
will be self-sufficient," Datch said. "Selling a portion of the produce,
the bread and the eggs in the neighborhood will allow the farm to sustain
itself."

IOCC also is cooperating with other Orthodox jurisdictions in Argentina,
including the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, the Russian Orthodox Church,
Moscow Patriarchate, and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

To learn more about IOCC's programs in Argentina and around the world,
please visit www.iocc.org or call toll-free 1-877-803-4622.

For media inquiries, please contact IOCC Communications Associate Stephen
Huba at 1-877-803-4622 or shuba@iocc.org.

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