NEW YORK (UMNS) -- Two containers with 1,362 relief boxes for North Korean families suffering the effects of famine were shipped July 22 by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).
The containers were shipped from the UMCOR Depot in Baldwin, La. Each box contains enough food -- rice, powdered milk, canned meat, shortening, chocolate bars -- to feed a family of five for a week. A small rake and trowel and comb and brush set also is included.
Another shipment of boxes should leave the depot for North Korea in August, according to Wendy Whiteside, UMCOR's executive secretary for program management.
She said an ecumenical-based shipment of boxes is expected to leave Missouri in September and that the West Virginia Annual (regional) Conference may have a shipment ready by September or early October.
UMCOR is continuing to urge United Methodists to contribute to its box campaign or make financial donations for bulk rice shipments and other types of relief supplies to UMCOR Advance No. 226435-0. "We have a goal of 100,000 boxes," Whiteside said.
According to the World Food Programme of the United Nations, a million tons of grain is needed to meet basic food needs in North Korea until the next harvest.
The organization issued an appeal July 9 for an additional $45.7 million to allow it to double food rations for the 2.6 million children under the age of six in North Korea. On July 15, its officials announced that nearly 75 percent of that goal had been made.
Other food shipments have come through Action by Churches Together (ACT), a broad ecumenical coalition whose membership includes UMCOR and Church World Service, the relief agency of the National Council of Churches. ACT representative Erich Weingartner is now in North Korea working with the World Food Programme to monitor donations from nongovernmental organizations.
James Laney, a United Methodist and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, and retired U.S. Senator Sam Nunn met with North Korea officials July 21 and South Korea officials July 22 to help prepare for negotiations between the two countries next month in New York. Emergency food aid was among the topics discussed.
July 23, 1997
Please give to UMCOR Advance #226435, North Korea Emergency. Give through your local United Methodist church or send financial contributions to: UMCOR, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Call 1-800-554-8583 to make a credit card donation. One hundred percent of your gift goes to relief efforts in North Korea. United Methodists' generous giving to the One Great Hour of Sharing, part of their ongoing contribution to mission around the world, supplements the cost of Advance gifts.
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of the United Methodist Church.
United Methodist Committee on Relief
Room 330, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115
Voice Phone: 212-870-3816; FAX: 212-749-2641
Email: umcor@gbgm-umc.org
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