Contact: Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-3916

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) will distribute some $25 million in medical supplies and equipment airlifted to Baku, capital of the newly independent state of Azerbaijan. The shipment, which arrived by air and rail on Aug. 17, will be used to equip several hospitals and clinics in the country.

UMCOR was selected by the U.S. Department of State as the lead agency in the delivery and distribution of the supplies because of its experience working with government medical facilities in Baku and the Absheron Peninsula, and its experience coordinating previous airlifts of medicine and medical supplies from the U.S. to Azerbaijan. Much of the equipment included in the airlift was collected from dismantled U.S. military bases.

Map of Azerbaijan.

Sarah S. Shingler, vice-president of the General Board of Global Ministries and president of its Women's Division, accompanied the airlift to Azerbaijan. She said, "I commend the U.S. government for its part in making possible the delivery of this vital humanitarian aid. This cooperative effort is an inspiring example of the power of people working together to make a real difference in the world."

There are close to a million impoverished refugees and internally displaced persons in the country, which regained its independence after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Since 1995, the government has closed a third of the hospitals in Azerbaijan. Those that remain open often are poorly equipped, understaffed, and underfunded.

To help staff at these hospitals improve patient care and service, UMCOR now is in the process of finalizing plans for a health partnership that would pair Baylor Hospital in Houston with two hospitals in Azerbaijan. Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare experts from Baylor, under contract to UMCOR, would train staff at the Azerbaijani hospitals.

UMCOR began work in the Caucasus region in 1993, with offices in Armenia and Georgia. Work in Azerbaijan began in 1996, with the goal of providing humanitarian aid to more than 100,000 refugees and displaced persons. UMCOR now has 11 clinics in Baku, which serve people displaced by war and other vulnerable populations. The relief agency also provides primary health care and medicine to settlements for internally displaced people in the southeast of the country.

UMCOR head, the Rev. Paul Dirdak, called the shipment of medicine and supplies and the planned health partnership "an opportunity to heal broken communities and broken spirits." He said "The Church is a necessary ingredient in all this good medicine. Doctors and nurses will have the things they need and the latest skills to bring their caring, healing touch to the wounded, insulted, and damaged--but ever hopeful--children of God."

The relief committee participated in several other medical airlifts with Interchurch Medical Assistance Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit association of twelve relief and development agencies. The airlifts are organized by the United States Department of State. Medical supplies for the lifts, including Medicine Boxes donated by The United Methodist Church, are provided by private donors, churches and other non-profit agencies.

August 17, 1998

UMCOR is part of the Health and Relief unit of the General Board of Global Ministries, mission agency for the 8.5-million member United Methodist Church.

Public Domain Map of Azerbaijan (adapted) from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/