UMCOR Launches Iran Appeal and Sends Specialists to Assess Need

December 29, 2003

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is sending two international field specialists to Bam, southeast Iran, in the next few days. Following the deadly earthquake that struck in the early morning of Dec. 26, the pair will assess needs for immediate aid as well as for longer term reconstruction. Guy Hovey, UMCOR's head of mission for Europe and Asia, and David Sadoo, disaster specialist based in New York, may arrive in Iran within the week.

"UMCOR's excellent experience following the earthquakes in Turkey and El Salvador puts the organization in a good position to provide help in Iran," said Paul Dirdak, UMCOR's chief executive. Replacement shelter has been a specialty of the agency in its work throughout Afghanistan, Turkey and the former republic of Yugoslavia, according to Dirdak.

"The hearts of all United Methodists go out to the Iranians whose lives were shattered by the devastating earthquake at Bam," said R. Randy Day, chief executive of the denomination's General Board of Global Ministries which administers UMCOR. "We think particularly of the children--those killed and those left orphaned," he said.

Iranian officials are estimating the death toll around Bam and its outlying areas will exceed 20,000. Amid fading hopes for finding anyone alive in the rubble were fears of cholera and diphtheria epidemics due to rupture of water sanitation facilities. Rescue workers and most survivors wore masks on Monday in the ruined old quarter of the city, according to a New York Times report, as they raced to assist the living.

UMCOR's partner in Iran, the Middle East Council of Churches, made an emergency assessment over the weekend. Their purchases of tents, blankets, water tanks, food and cooking oil and will arrive in the coming days for distribution through local Christian churches and the Iranian Red Crescent in the disaster area.

Efforts spearheaded by the Red Crescent to channel aid to about 120,000 people in quake-stricken outlying villages were falling afoul of freezing weather and the sheer scale of the disaster that has left tens of thousands without water, power or shelter.

Emergency supplies and money are both critical needs. Randy Day and Paul Dirdak urged United Methodists to respond in two key ways while UMCOR workers make their way to Iran. The agency expects to provide health kits and school kits, among other supplies, to Iran in coming weeks. Specifications for assembly may be found online at http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/kits.cfm. Gifts to a newly established UMCOR Advance #624315, Iran Earthquake, will underwrite additional humanitarian assistance to the stricken area and "express solidarity with all who suffer there," Day said.

UMCOR is the not-for-profit humanitarian agency of The United Methodist Church. Since 1940 UMCOR's mission-- providing relief in disaster areas such as Iran, aiding refugees and confronting the challenge of world hunger and poverty-- has helped to heal the hurts of humanity in nearly 100 countries. UMCOR maintains a corps of trained disaster response specialists for quick reinforcement of national efforts, and it keeps a supply of relief materials in warehouses for dispatch when and where required. For disasters outside the United States, UMCOR serves as the primary channel for United Methodist assistance. It also trains disaster response specialists in their own countries as part of a global ministry by a global church, and it works in partnership with other international agencies.

Photo: An Iranian man walks through rubble and dead bodies after the earthquake in Bam. Credit: Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl, courtesy AlertNet, http://www.alertnet.org.