Second Round of 'All Our Children' Supplies
to Benefit 14,000 Iraqi Children
AMMAN, JORDAN -- A shipment of
badly needed personal hygiene soap and laundry detergent destined for Iraqi
children and pediatric hospitals crossed the border near Amman, Jordan,
this morning (Sun 3/30) and is on its way to Baghdad today. The truckload
of hygiene supplies may arrive tomorrow (Mon 3/31), reports humanitarian
agency Church World Service (CWS).
The 5.5 metric tons of soap -- enough to support the hygiene needs of more than 14,000 Iraqi children for six months -- and 5.8 metric tons of laundry detergent are funded by the multi-agency All Our Children Campaign. Once in Baghdad, the pediatric supplies will be distributed by CARE Iraq to support UNICEF'S child nutrition program in Iraq. .
A founding partner of All Our Children, CWS says the shipment, the second of the campaign, had been sitting at the Jordanian border awaiting customs clearance and determination of sufficient safety to make the road trip to Baghdad.
CWS International Emergency Response Consultant in Amman, Steve Weaver, says the supplies will be used in "UNICEF nutrition rehabilitation wards in 68 pediatric and district hospitals throughout southern and central Iraq, as access allows." Weaver says they are projecting that the supplies "will support 14,688 children in the next six months.
"To help break the cycle of malnutrition and diarrhea, it's important to ensure good hygiene practices," he explains. The death rate of children under age five is already two and a half times greater than prior to the Gulf War.
The $1 million coalition All Our Children Campaign, based in Amman, Jordan, is endorsed by former President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter.
"We also received confirmation this week," says CWS Emergency Response Program Director Rick Augsburger, "that a first All Our Children shipment of $91,000 in medical supplies entered Iraq just prior to the war's outbreak, and has been distributed to the Mannsour Pediatric and Iskaan Pediatric Hospitals in Baghdad."
"We've gotten word from inside Baghdad that we are meeting simple yet critical needs with the soap and laundry detergent," says Augsburger. "The children need hygiene, and the hospitals need cleaning supplies. Reports out of Baghdad are telling us that some hospitals remain open, and so far CARE Iraq has been able to provide some locally purchased bleach." But Augsburger says "the need is great."
"When we visited Iraq in 1999," Augsburger recalls, "the lack of medical equipment and supplies in hospitals then was appalling. Conditions certainly haven't improved during this conflict."
Launched last year before U.S. bombing of Iraq began, CWS Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough says "The All Our Children Campaign represents CWS' decade-long, ongoing commitment to providing humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people.
"Whatever happens in Iraq, we know that there will still be a critical need for medicine and health related items in Iraqi health service institutions," McCullough concludes, "particularly to help improve curative health services for Iraqi children."
In addition to the All Our Children Campaign, CWS recently issued an appeal to raise $1.5 million designated for humanitarian response in Iraq, to be implemented by CWS' on the ground partner in the region the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC).
CWS has already airlifted 4,500 blankets, valued at $19,170, to MECC in Amman, Jordan.
Since 1991 CWS has provided more than $3.8 million in UN-sanctioned health and medical supplies and humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people.
During the 1990s CWS spearheaded a campaign that Iraqi health administrators said put blankets on every hospital bed in the country.
CWS is also currently working with on the ground partners to support the needs of displaced persons in Iraq and refugees who may enter Jordan and Syria.
CWS opposed the U.S.' pre-emptive strike on Iraq and will not accept U.S. government funding for the initial emergency phase of response to the current conflict. CWS also continues to be a vocal opponent of the U.S.' embedding of humanitarian aid within the military.
56 year-old Church World Service is an international humanitarian agency and ministry of 36 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican denominations, working in partnership with local organizations in more than 80 countries to support sustainable self-help and development, meet emergency needs, aid refugees, and address the root causes of poverty and powerlessness
John McCullough spent five days in Iraq at the end of January, as member of a humanitarian research mission to Baghdad, sponsored by the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR).
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