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WASHINGTON -- A few years ago Dirk Van Gorp was a building contractor in the mountains of upstate New York, but now he heads the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) mission in the former Yugoslavia.
Van Gorp also administers millions of dollars in aid. Working for UMCOR, a part of the denomination's Board of Global Ministries, he oversees the expenditures of relief and rehabilitation money granted by the United Nations and the United States and other bodies for specific projects.
Initially he signed up for six months in Bosnia in 1993 and has extended his commitment as the opportunities have mushroomed and the size of the staff has grown from six to about 240 people.
One-third of a $30 million grant from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been expended in the last three months to procure and deliver building materials for families to repair their homes to make them habitable again.
This "self-help project," so termed because the families make their own repairs with materials provided, is the largest UMCOR has undertaken in Bosnia. Its goal is the repatriation of people to their pre-war homes.
Procuring $25 to $26 million worth of materials through Bosnian manufacturers and companies "is a challenge in and of itself," Van Gorp said. The project has required Van Gorp and his staff to establish "in-depth relationships" with 50-60 governments, who distribute the materials to individual families.
"We monitor the whole process from beginning to end," he added.
A limited amount from this grant -- about $1.5 million -- is allocated to help people who are not able to make their own repairs. "That's not nearly enough," he said.
Another shelter project, also designed with repatriation in mind, is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It targets specific villages and communities. Six or seven non-governmental organizations have these contracts that will repair 2,500 homes.
UMCOR's responsibilities -- the largest portion -- are to implement repairs to 700 homes and six schools in six municipalities, using a grant of $6.45 million.
Another USAID grant of $2.3 million, awarded in July of 1995, targeted infrastructures. UMCOR has completed $2 million more of these projects.
June 20, 1996