January 22, 2002 - News from Lutheran World Relief

LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF MAKES INITIAL GRANT OF $25,000 FOR VOLCANO RELIEF IN CONGO

Baltimore, January 22, 2002 - Lutheran World Relief, along with other members of the interchurch emergency alliance, Action by Churches Together (ACT), is responding to urgent needs among refugees who fled their homes following the January 17 eruption of a volcano near Goma, Congo.

ACT's relief efforts include the provision of water and sanitation, food, plastic sheeting, blankets and cooking utensils for 60,000 people. Among these, special attention will be given to the needs of children and the elderly.

Lutheran World Relief has made a grant of $25,000 to assist with immediate relief needs in the region.

Security concerns remain high for the safety of the hundreds of thousands of Congolese making their way back to Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the wake of the volcanic eruptions that devastated much of Goma and villages between the city and Mount Nyirogongo.

ACT reports that conditions remain uncertain and that no official report has been released stating that the volcano no longer poses a threat to the population.

Although the ground is still very unstable in the city, people are returning despite the dangers. Judith Melby, of ACT member agency Christian Aid said that this is causing problems for aid workers. "People have to be registered, aid agencies need to know where people are and what they need. If there were more tremors or eruptions here in Goma, then we don't know whether people will flee over the border again."

Although it is difficult to estimate exact figures, it is believed that there are still between 17,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter in Rwanda. ACT is distributing food and non-food items at two of the three locations established by the Rwandan authorities where people can receive aid - at one site in Ruhengeri and one of the two camps set up in Gisenyi. Meanwhile, ACT member Lutheran Wold Federation has also upgraded its warehousing facilities to a capacity of 12,000 metric tons.

Authorities in Goma have met with the International NGO's (including ACT members) to discuss the five locations they have set aside as food and non-food distribution points. Two of these are located in the smaller section of Goma that is accessible by road. The remaining three will have to be reached by barge at this stage.

It is still extremely difficult to get food to the Goma area. The Goma airport was partially destroyed by the lava flow. There is a smaller airport near Bukavu, south of Kivu, but the road is in disrepair.

ACT also is focusing its efforts on water and sanitation, which includes tanks and water purification, piping, pumping and sanitation units.

When disaster strikes, in addition to prayer, the greatest immediate need is cash so that our local partners can quickly and efficiently provide needed assistance.

Baltimore, January 22, 2002 - Although insecurity is still widespread and local access for aid workers remains difficult, Lutheran World Relief and other members of a church emergency alliance report signs of hope in different areas of Afghanistan.

A mercy flight carrying 5,000 LWR layettes will benefit mothers with infants in the Kabul area. The gifts, prepared by U.S. Lutheran parishes are scheduled to go to Afghanistan in early February aboard an aircraft donated by Evergreen Airlines. There are also 5,000 LWR quilts on board.

To provide relief in north central Afghanistan, LWR last week dispatched $416,000 worth of layettes, children's clothing, school kits and soap via Uzbekistan. More than $1.2 million worth of LWR aid has now been sent via Iran, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

In eight central provinces, local aid workers are delivering winter food parcels to 21,000 homes-most headed by women and widows-with support provided by LWR and other members of the church aid coalition ACT. Tents are also going to families who lost their homes during the bombing campaign.

In a former war zone north of Kabul, emergency shelter and food have been given to 5,000 farm households by another ACT member but the same organization cannot resume work in south-eastern Afghanistan because of lawlessness.

Near the border with Tajikistan, 2,000 families are receiving emergency shelter and basic hygiene items from the relief agency of the United Methodist Church.

"There is a greater sense of hope now," a church aid official reported from Kabul last week. Geir Valle of Norwegian Church Aid said a humanitarian crisis "could be averted to a large extent," but stressed that there are still areas with very serious [food] deficits.

Average daily shipments of food aid into the country have now returned to levels not seen since September 11, according to United Nations reports.

Victory in Afghanistan rests on the wellbeing of many people, not on the demise of one man.

Victory in Afghanistan is a matter of many millions of lives saved, not of one life taken.

Victory cannot be declared now for the country of 25 million; it won't be secured for months or years.

Every second Afghan child who is malnourished, every third citizen who is displaced will define it.

So will every fifth person who is hungry.

Victory in Afghanistan begins with the massive aid efforts underway now. It will be delivered at people's doorsteps in food and blankets each day this winter. It will be earned through aid and commerce that can travel without fear of bandits and extortion. It will be established when a new government earns the trust of skeptical citizens.

Victory will come with the return of the nearly 4 million Afghan refugees from Pakistan and Iran.

It will take hold when 21 million Afghans have safe drinking water again. It will be a victory over war, deception and drought. It will be a victory for tenacity, resilience and peace.

This road to victory is a high road, one where every life counts. It's a road where the powerful are accountable to the weak. It is a road where hard questions are asked and answered.

Our news media may report when civilian lives are lost - 15 villagers here, 50 there - but their numbers remain "impossible to confirm," and a record of the casualty toll is not kept.

Marc W. Herold, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, has been using major foreign media and first-hand reports to compile a list of civilian casualties since the U.S. bombing campaign began Oct. 7. He corroborates accounts and keeps his figures conservative. By Dec. 10, his estimate for civilian deaths caused by the bombing, or "collateral damage," was 3,767. Very few Americans heard that news.

UNICEF warned in the fall that a war-related increase in one of the worst child mortality rates in the world could cost the lives of an additional 100,000 Afghan children. In the arithmetic of terror, that means roughly one World Trade Center tower falling each day for the next four months.

The road is also a shared road. America's coalition partners are indispensable for victory. Afghanistan needs wise, generous and united support. Relief and recovery must mobilize that society around broad and common goals such as food, security, economic development and consensus politics.

In a country awash with guns, peacekeeping is a coalition task. When the Pentagon exerts pressure to keep peacekeepers in Kabul while America pursues narrow military goals that leave the field open for warlords and bandits, relief workers, medical personnel and de-mining teams have trouble doing their jobs.

America's focus on Osama bin Laden and those who sheltered him has sidelined international humanitarian actions in Afghanistan that the United States itself generously supports.

What boils down to a multibillion-dollar manhunt for a few men begs for comparison with much less costly, and much more feasible, humanitarian goals.

Perhaps the Air Force drones sniffing mountainsides for the body heat of al-Qaida fugitives could send back data instead about cold and hungry civilians huddled in the hills.

The road to victory is also long. Recovery for Afghanistan may take as long as the long years of crisis. The United Nations is calling for $15 billion of aid over the next 10 years. But agriculture, commerce, infrastructure and public services have suffered 23 years of damage.

The United States must stay the course this time and invest in Afghanistan without borrowing aid that is destined for people in other crises.

The first milestones on this victory road are in view. Average daily shipments of food aid into Afghanistan recently returned to pre-war levels. Basic needs are being assessed.

Our co-workers in the field are reaching widows with precious food packages. Canadian avalanche experts are watching mountain aid routes. U.N. helicopters are preparing to airlift food to a few of the country's most isolated villages. Long-awaited rain is falling.

Victory in Afghanistan will not be America's victory. It must be Afghanistan's victory. A watching world will know the difference. A much-abused nation is waiting to begin anew.