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Published by
International Orthodox Christian Charities,
April 8, 2005
IOCC
ASSISTANCE GOING TO KOSOVO COMMUNITIES IN
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April 8, 2005
Baltimore (IOCC) – Living in certain parts of
Kosovo is a daily struggle – one that doesn’t get
any easier with time.
Six years since the NATO bombing campaign, and a
year since the renewed violence against minority
communities in Kosovo, residents there continue to
suffer from a lack of security, mobility, services
and, in some cases, proper shelter.
This despite the efforts of the international
community to help all ethnic groups in Kosovo
coexist and build opportunities for
reconciliation, stability and prosperity in the
troubled province.
International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC)
is responding to the nutritional and hygiene needs
of minority communities in Kosovo through a new
project that will provide more than 1,000 families
with food and hygiene parcels and support the
operations of a soup kitchen in Prekovac.
IOCC has identified the Pomoravlje region and the
Gnjilane, Novo Brdo, Vitina, Pristina and
Gracanica enclaves as the most vulnerable areas
because they host many displaced people. Within
these enclaves, IOCC will provide assistance to
people living in 10 isolated villages.
Working through the local partner “Majka 9
Jugovica,” IOCC will provide a one-month supply of
supplementary food and hygiene items to 1,000
families of all ethnic groups living in private
accommodations, as well as families staying in a
shelter in Gracanica.
IOCC’s support of the soup kitchen will provide
immediate, life-sustaining assistance to elderly
and other poor people in the Novo Brdo region, and
sustain the soup kitchen operations for six
months.
This latest project is the result of a detailed
needs-assessment done in February and is
accomplished with the support of longtime IOCC
partner Vlade Divac and others. In December, Divac,
star center for the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers,
extended a challenge grant of $50,000 to IOCC for
humanitarian assistance in Kosovo. IOCC matched
the grant with the support of its Board of
Directors.
“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to
IOCC for all its efforts to assist the Church and
minorities living in Kosovo,” said His Grace
Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan, abbot of High Decani
Monastery in western Kosovo.
To learn more about IOCC humanitarian programs in
the former Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, please
visit www.iocc.org.
For media inquiries, please contact IOCC
Communications Associate Stephen Huba at
1-877-803-4622 or shuba@iocc.org.
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