wfn.org | [SCOBA] IOCC Aids Iraqi Families in Conflict-Ridden Sadr City

[Communications Department <Communications@GOARCH.ORG>]

INTERNATIONAL ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHARITIES
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 25, 2008

IOCC Aids Iraqi Families in Conflict-Ridden Sadr City 

(Baltimore, Maryland) – International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), 
the Baltimore-based humanitarian aid organization, announces a new grant 
that will provide food and emergency supplies to vulnerable families 
living in Sadr City, one of the poorest and most densely populated 
districts of Baghdad. The approximately $400,000 grant, awarded to IOCC by 
the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
(OCHA), will assist approximately 2,400 vulnerable families in this 
predominantly Shiite area, the site of continuous heavy fighting between 
insurgents and multi-national forces. 
The aim of IOCC’s latest program to assist Iraqis affected by the war is 
to provide families with high protein foods to reduce malnutrition rates 
as well as hygiene supplies for at least three months. One in four 
children under five years of age in Iraq is chronically malnourished.
The residents of Sadr City who will benefit from the distribution include 
low income families, single-headed households, orphans, the elderly, 
invalids, and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
“The effects of war and the general economic slowdown exacerbated by 12 
years of economic sanctions have adversely affected Iraq’s food security,” 
says George Antoun, IOCC’s Regional Director. More than 60% of Iraqi 
families are entirely dependent on the government’s food ration program, 
however the Iraqi government has announced plans to end the program for 
some citizens this year. 
IOCC has previously worked in Sadr City and will cooperate with local 
authorities in the distribution. IOCC’s most recent aid to Iraq included a 
distribution of food and hygiene supplies in early 2008 to 3,000 families 
living in Baghdad and Mosul.

IOCC, founded in 1992 as the official humanitarian aid agency of the 
Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), 
has implemented over $275 million in relief and development programs in 33 
countries around the world. IOCC is a member of Action by Churches 
Together (ACT) International.

Media: Contact Amal Morcos at 410-243-9820 or (cell) 443-823-3489.