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Albania + 3 more

Save the Children seeks $1 Million for Kosovo Emergency Fund

Westport, CT-- Save the Children is seeking $1 million in emergency funding to increase its capacity to respond to the ongoing crisis in the Balkans. Currently distributing emergency supplies in several regions of Albania and Montenegro, Save the Children will expand its work to reach a greater number of children and families affected by this humanitarian disaster.
During the past week, political upheaval in Yugoslavia has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in Kosovo into neighboring Albania, Montenegro, and Macedonia. Each day, the situation for these refugees grows more serious and their needs more urgent. Children in particular are at serious risk for physical and psychological trauma, disease, dehydration, and malnutrition.

With its British, Norwegian, and Danish Alliance partners, Save the Children is responding to the critical needs of Kosovar children and families in Albania and Montenegro. In addition, the organization is expanding its early childhood education program for Kosovar refugee children in Bosnia.

On April 6, 1999, Save the Children's first shipment of supplies since the onset of this most recent conflict safely crossed the border from Bosnia into Montenegro. Headed to the town of Plav, where more than 8,000 refugees await assistance, this 22 ton shipment includes kits of canned meat and fish, rice, cooking oil, and powdered milk and juice, as well as soap and shampoo. Save the Children also is initiating early childhood education programs in Plav to help restore structure and normalcy to the lives of children affected by this crisis.

On April 12, Save the Children will send by air approximately 40 metric tons of supplies "primarily to assist children in need" to Albania and Macedonia. The shipment will include family kits that contain warm winter clothing for children, hygiene packs with diapers and other supplies, first aid supplies to treat diarrheal disease, and canned baby food.

NOTE: Save the Children has been providing humanitarian assistance to refugees in the area of Plav, Montenegro, a town about 20 miles from the Kosovo border, since late 1998. Prior to the March 1999 escalation of the Kosovo crisis, Save the Children had distributed more than 150 metric tons of emergency aid, including repair materials for housing, wood-burning stoves, food, and children's winter clothing packages. Save the Children has been working on behalf of children and families in this region since 1993 when the organization first established emergency education programs in war-torn Bosnia.