United Methodists, Jewish group team up for aid to Ethiopia
9/12/2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York By United Methodist News Service The United Methodist director of a food relief organization has formed a partnership with a Jewish group to help save thousands of lives in Ethiopia this fall.
Stop Hunger Now and the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry have teamed up to deal with an expected malaria outbreak in the Gondar highlands of Ethiopia. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) also is contributing to the effort.
In an area hard hit by famine, Gondar's 10,000 inhabitants have been living on 10 pounds of food a month apiece, according to the Rev. Ray Buchanan of Stop Hunger Now. Summer rains have caused mosquito breeding that could trigger a malaria epidemic in October and November with up to a 50 percent mortality rate because of malnourishment.
With no access to expensive preventive medicine, the practical solution is to provide an adequate food supply to beef up residents' immune systems. "The only thing we can do is put as much food into that area as soon as possible," Buchanan said.
His organization already had provided financial assistance to the North American Conference's feeding program for schoolchildren in Gondar before the famine. Buchanan learned about the current crisis when he and Barbara Ribakove Gordon, the conference's executive director, were speakers at an Aug. 20 program on Ethiopia at a Raleigh, N.C., synagogue.
Buchanan immediately committed $25,000 from Stop Hunger Now to the conference's effort to get more food to the region before October, when the malaria season begins. On the strength of that commitment, the conference's Ethiopia country director, Andy Goldman, already has purchased $10,000 worth of food that was being distributed in September.
The North American Conference on Ethiopia Jewry received a check for the total pledge of $25,000 on Sept. 11. That amount included $10,000 from UMCOR. "I cannot tell you how immensely grateful we are," Gordon said in a Sept. 12 interview. "It will save a lot of lives."
In acknowledgment of the interfaith funding, the conference has arranged for Kebbele, a local peasant association, to select 50 of the neediest families among the non-Jewish neighbors to include in the food distribution.
But, Gordon pointed out, "the Jews are essentially in a more difficult position than most of their neighbors because they do not have farms. They are displaced persons."
While Gondar traditionally has had Jewish residents, many moved to Israel. The remainder have come from villages "miles and miles away" to settle near the small Israeli consulate in hopes of also joining family members in Israel. "Many of these people have been there as long as seven years already," Gordon explained. "The processing (of visas) is very, very slow."
The conference had been running a six-day-a-week lunch feeding program for nearly 2,400 children in Gondar, but, after famine struck, that was inadequate. Gordon said that during her last visit in June she was appalled to find out that 90 percent of the children were malnourished. In addition, the combination of famine and roads being washed out by summer rains has made it difficult to find food locally or truck it in, driving costs up.
The $25,000 grant through Stop Hunger Now allows the conference to purchase tef, a nourishing grain indigenous to Ethiopia, and beans for distribution to families. Goldman also was able to buy carrots for the children's lunch program recently, Gordon said.
In addition to the UMCOR funding, Stop Hunger Now used money from its new immediate response fund -- established with grants from Lags Lageshulte and Ed Droste, who own a number of restaurants in the Hooter's chain - to fulfill its initial commitment.
But Buchanan is expecting another $15,000 from UMCOR and is appealing for more donations for emergency assistance to this and other communities in Ethiopia. The organization also has been involved in a street feeding program in Addis Ababa run by Hope Enterprises, an independent Christian organization.
Stop Hunger Now provides food, commodities and other emergency direct relief to agencies and organizations already active in crisis areas around the world. Donations can be mailed to 2501 Clark Ave., Suite 301, Raleigh, N.C. 77607-7213. More information is available by calling toll-free (888) 501-8440.
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