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Published by International
Orthodox Christian Charities, August 15,
2003
IOCC Helping Iraqi
Children, Displaced Persons
Baghdad (IOCC) - From displaced
people in the northern city of Mosul to school
children in Baghdad, International Orthodox
Christian Charities (IOCC) is bringing new hope
and help in post-war Iraq. IOCC senior staff
recently spent a week in Baghdad opening an office
and hiring personnel. They also spent time in
Mosul, a city of 1.7 million people, where some
50,000 to 70,000 internally-displaced Kurds are in
need of the barest necessities.
The Kurds of Mosul were forced from
their homes under the previous regime. Now that
they have returned, they have no place to live.
IOCC Chief Operating Officer David Holdridge and
Regional Director George Antoun found one group of
20 families living in an abandoned building. "They're
squatting in an old Iraqi Army barracks,"
Holdridge
said. "Their situation is
precarious. Their homes were taken, and they have
no place else to go." IOCC, working through local
Orthodox Church partners, hopes to provide the
families with cooking utensils, food parcels,
bedding and other necessities in the coming weeks
and months.
"Church leaders that we met
expressed their gratitude and appreciation to
IOCC for coming to Iraq to help during this
difficult and critical period in their country's
history," Antoun said. "They are eager to join
IOCC in providing help to those who are in most
need." In Baghdad, IOCC, in addition to
distributing emergency relief supplies to
vulnerable families, is identifying schools in
poor neighborhoods that need repair. Iraqi
children return to school on Sept. 10, but in
many cases, the learning environment is poor. "This
emerged as a clear need while we were there,"
Holdridge said. "Because of the looting and some
collateral damage from the war, there are a lot
of public buildings and institutions that need
repair. We can be of assistance in that area."
IOCC, supported by the Greek
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the relief
alliance Action by Churches Together, hopes to fix
broken classroom windows, provide new classroom
furniture, and repair damaged electrical and
plumbing systems in schools.
"We're trying to move Iraq toward a
situation of normalcy, where the children of
Iraqis go off to school in the morning without
worry," Holdridge said.
More than 400 schools in and around
Baghdad are in need of repair, he said. IOCC will
concentrate on schools in poor neighborhoods.
IOCC's parent organization, the
Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox
Bishops in the Americas, is encouraging all
Orthodox Christians to support IOCC's efforts in
Iraq through prayer and giving. IOCC has worked in
the Middle East since 1997 and, in addition to
Iraq, has programs in the Holy Land and Lebanon.
To learn more about IOCC's humanitarian and
self-help programs around the world, please visit www.iocc.org
or call toll-free 1-877-803-4622.
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