NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
April 26, 2002
For more information contact Jonathan Frerichs at (410) 230-2802.
In this news release:
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The Mid-East Crisis in One Home, One Hospital Ward
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Ecumenical Convoy Brings Aid to Jenin's "Ground Zero"
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Lutheran World Relief Staff News
THE MID-EAST CRISIS IN ONE HOME, ONE HOSPITAL WARD
Jerusalem, April 25, 2002 -- Abdel Majoud Awes lives ten minutes from a machine that keeps him alive. But for nearly a month now this West Bank resident has been unable to reach it.
Every second day Awes has to have his blood cleaned by a dialysis machine. He normally makes the short trip from his home to the nearby city of Nablus for the four-hour treatments.
At the end of March, when they launched their campaign against militants, Israeli soldiers began stopping Awes from going to Nablus. He had no choice but to keep trying. The soldiers turned him away every day for two weeks.
Desperate, he finally called an ambulance to take him on the long journey to Jerusalem. The soldiers turned the ambulance back too.
"By then my body was swollen all over," said Awes. "There was heavy pressure on my chest and around my neck. It was harder and harder to breathe. I was looking death in the face."
Then, to evade the army checkpoint altogether, a friend carried Awes nearly a mile through the hills to meet a taxi summoned from Jerusalem. Awes weighed 250 pounds -- 30 more than normal -- because of all the fluid retained in his body. His destination was the Lutheran World Federation Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives.
He was not alone in coming. For nearly a month the dialysis unit at Augusta Victoria Hospital has been treating an average of 21 patients a day, nearly half of them new. Conflict has cut West Bank kidney patients off from the few hospitals that offer dialysis, and hospitals from supplies, so people like Awes have been brought to the LWF unit in East Jerusalem.
The unit is short-staffed. Only three dialysis nurses have been able to reach the hospital because of curfews and closures.
"Since the crisis began I have been working 12-to-18-hour shifts, five and six days a week," said Najah Abu Mor, the nurse who treated Awes today. "I sleep here because getting to my home near Bethlehem is out of the question." She is also seven months pregnant and has been told by her doctor not to work so hard.
For Awes the crisis costs time, money and fatigue. "The three-hour taxi ride from Nablus costs me about $50 each time and it makes me very tired," he said. "My wife has to stay home to keep our small shop open and look after our young daughter."
There is added danger too. Awes is only making the long trip to Jerusalem once a week. He says he cannot afford more.
His less frequent treatments appear to be tempting fate. Early in his session today he slept like he was in a coma, as if his swollen body had squeezed him unconscious. Had he waited too long to come in? Meanwhile, the machine attached to his arm sounded like it was doing a month of laundry in one load.
When the dialysis was over, Awes said he would return to the Nablus checkpoint and beg the soldiers to let him through if his condition worsened before his next visit.
"Remove the checkpoint, that's what I really need," he said. "We just want to move freely, live in a safe place, and raise our children in peace."
"Yes, and be able to get to Nablus in ten minutes like before."
Click here to read LWR's Middle East Crisis Fact Sheet.
To contribute, you may also call 1-800-LWR-LWR2, or mail a check or money order to:
Lutheran World Relief - Middle East Crisis
PO Box 17061
Baltimore, MD 21298-9832
Please also consider making an unrestricted donation which will enable LWR to respond quickly to the next emergency.
ECUMENICAL CONVOY BRINGS AID TO JENIN'S "GROUND ZERO"
Jerusalem, April 26, 2002 -- An ecumenical convoy brought rations, relief and an international show of support to the heavily damaged West Bank town of Jenin yesterday.
In a 15-hour odyssey that began in Jerusalem, some 150 international pastors, priests, bishops and church aid workers escorted the convoy through military checkpoints and then lined up with local volunteers to unload tons of ration boxes, medical supplies, quilts and school kits for hospitalized children. The 21-vehicle convoy was organized by six church organizations in Jerusalem, including an LWR partner, Lutheran World Federation.
Six thousand people are homeless in Jenin as a result of a fierce ten-day battle earlier this month. The church aid teams visited residents in a once-crowded, refugee neighborhood that is now reminiscent of the scene at "ground zero" in New York City. People gather on rubble that was their home, individuals pick through broken concrete for personal belongings and, ringing the devastation, families in living rooms stare out through walls torn off by military bulldozers.
The absence of organized recovery work yesterday was striking - evidence of the limited public services functioning in Palestinian areas after months of conflict and of the international impasse over how to determine what happened in Jenin.
About 50 bodies have been recovered from the battlefield so far. Local residents said about 1,500 people are still unaccounted for as of yesterday, either under the rubble or among the thousands in Israeli detention.
This was the fourth inter-church relief convoy to besieged Palestinian centers in the two weeks since intense violence abated. Joining today's relief mission were the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, one of the highest church leaders in the Holy Land, a delegation of U.S. church leaders, European and American church aid officials, and Canadian diplomats.
To see photos about these stories, click on one of the images above.
Lutheran World Relief has allocated $30,000 for these emergency needs and welcomes contributions of further funds. In recent months LWR has provided some $800,000 worth of aid for medical, relief, rehabilitation and vocational programs among Palestinians.
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF STAFF NEWS
Baltimore, April 26, 2002 -- Brenda Meier, Parish Projects and Partnerships Associate for Lutheran World Relief was recently voted Secretary of the Association of Lutheran Development Executives (ALDE). ALDE promotes and provides professional growth opportunities for its members and advances the understanding and practice of Christian stewardship. Brenda also received the Outstanding Alumni Award from Midland College. At LWR, Brenda works with parish groups.
Jonathan Frerichs, LWR Communication Director, won the DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award of Excellence from the Religion Communicators Council for a two-sided poster entitled "Where Do Quilts Go." The poster includes beautiful full-color photos which tell the story of LWR quilts, and the success of LWR's relief and development work in Hurricane Mitch.
