Baltimore, March 12, 2003 -- Leaders
of Lutheran World Relief, Catholic Relief Services and the aid agency,
Africare, are in Ethiopia this week where 11 million people are at severe
risk from a food crisis. The delegation is assessing needs and the aid
response to what is considered the country's worst crisis since the famine
of the mid-1980s. They are also investigating long-term solutions to the
chronic food shortages that occur in certain areas of Ethiopia.
LWR President Kathryn Wolford, CRS Executive
Director Ken Hackett and Africare President Julius Coles are traveling
to hard-hit areas of the country as well as meeting with Ethiopia's president,
church leaders, aid officials and the U.S. ambassador. Ethiopia's Lutheran,
Catholic and Orthodox churches and aid agencies collaborate closely in
hunger relief work.
The delegation will report on their findings at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 2003. They will urge that existing needs in Africa not be forgotten at this time. LWR and CRS are based in Baltimore. Africare is based in Washington, D.C.