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Church World Service(CWS) - USA
http://www.churchworldservice.org
Source: Reuters AlertNet
http://www.alertnet.org/
May 19, 2003

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NEW YORK CITY – A $55,000 contribution from The Riverside Church will help the global humanitarian agency Church World Service meet the critical health needs of Iraqi children. The funds were raised in the congregation’s Easter 2003 Offering.

Since economic sanctions were imposed on Iraq in 1991, according to the United Nations, "at least 500,000 Iraqi children have died because of a lack of necessary medicine and medical supplies, food and water," said the Rev. John L. McCullough, Church World Service Executive Director, accepting the contribution.

"In Iraq, there are many, many mothers who over the past 12 years have suffered the loss of their children," he said. The recent war wreaked further havoc upon a weakened health care infrastructure.

"Now major combat has ended but the war of human suffering has continued," said the Rev. McCullough, a United Methodist. "Today there are children in hospitals across Iraq too weak to lift their heads, suffering from diarrhea, dysentery, cholera – conditions we know how to resolve.

"Your offering symbolizes your understanding that all children are our children," he said, hailing The Riverside Church’s humanitarian spirit. "On behalf of Church World Service we pledge to use your gift to give a new opportunity to the children of Iraq."

The $55,000 will be allocated through the All Our Children campaign, a multi-agency campaign for Iraqi children's health that Church World Service helped to found in December 2002. As of May 19, the campaign already had provided $264,000 in cash and $183,414 in kind for medicine, medical supplies, emergency food aid, blankets, wheelchairs and hygiene supplies for pediatrics hospitals and clinics and to a program serving street children.

The Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister of The Riverside Church, and Mr. Chenault Spence, Stewardship Committee Chair, presented the contribution to the Rev. McCullough during morning worship May 11, Mother's Day.

Said Mr. Spence, "Jesus has been seen in the newspapers and on television a great deal during the past few month -- lying in a children’s ward in Baghdad or hobbling around on thin legs in a neighborhood without water or electricity.

"Our Easter offering has been a gift to these little Jesuses," he said. "We have reached into our pockets … and -- through a miracle of multiplication -- we now have more than $55,000. We have not stopped there. We have reached into our hearts and brought out love and hope multiplied beyond measure.

"Today we are here with our partner, Church World Service, to continue miracle working, changing this money -- blessed with our love and hope -- into medicine, water and food for these children," Mr. Spence concluded.

The Riverside Church is an interdenominational, international, interracial congregation, affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the American Baptist Churches in the USA. It is located in Harlem, at 490 Riverside Drive at 120th Street in New York City.

The All Our Children campaign was founded before the recent war to benefit the severe and longstanding health crisis among Iraq’s children. Besides Church World Service, partners include the National Council of Churches USA, the Mennonite Central Committee, Jubilee Partners, Oxfam America, Sojourners, Lutheran World Federation and Stop Hunger Now.

Church World Service is a global humanitarian agency of the NCC’s 36 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican member denominations, which in turn comprise 50 million U.S. Christians.

Additional contributions to the All Our Children campaign are welcome and may be directed to: Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515 (28606 Phillips St., Elkhart, IN 46514). You can also donate on-line, or phone toll free: 1-800-297-1516.

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Direct Link:
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