American Jewish Committee Donates $200,000 To United Nations High Commission For Refugees For Humanitarian Aid In Kosovo

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 15 July 1999

The American Jewish Committee has donated $200,000 to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for the reconstruction of up to 20 schools in Kosovo. The contribution was drawn from AJC's Kosovo Relief Fund which, since it was launched in April, has raised $1.35 million to assist Muslims displaced during the campaign of "ethnic cleansing." To date, AJC has allocated these funds to six aid organizations.

In Geneva today, AJC Executive Director David A. Harris presented AJC's latest contribution to Mrs. Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The AJC was particularly pleased to make its donation to this important United Nations body, further supporting the UN in its critical role to safeguard human rights and provide humanitarian assistance.

Other disbursements from AJC's Kosovo Relief Fund include:

- $100,000 to Catholic Relief Services. John Cardinal O'Connor, who accepted the AJC check on behalf of CRS at a ceremony in his residence, called the AJC donation "a new high in interfaith relations." The AJC contribution will enable CRS to launch a school reconstruction project in a camp in Macedonia.

- $195,000 to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to fund an education program for children in a JDC managed refugee camp in Elbasan, Albania and to finance 5,000 activity kits with crayons, paper and small toys for children in several refugee camps. $25,000 of this contribution will go to the Macedonian Jewish community, enabling it to perform local relief operations.

- $120,000 to Die Johanniter, a German NGO, to purchase advanced medical equipment such as ultra-sound and EKG machines in order to upgrade its facility in Neproshtina, a refugee camp in Macedonia.

- $195,000 to the International Rescue Committee for programs aimed at providing household items to refugees now living in Montenegro, and educational supplies for refugee school children in Albania.

- $25,000 to the Metropolitan Coordinating Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) to provide blankets, linens, towels, dishes and other household items to 150 Kosovar refugee families who are resettling in New York.

In addition to these donations, the AJC is holding several hundred thousand dollars for future anticipated refugee needs. As the ethnic Albanians who were forced to flee the province return to their homeland, the AJC will use these funds to help meet the enormous challenges of reconstruction and resettlement in the coming months.

Aside from its fundraising efforts, AJC had placed ads in national and international newspapers and periodicals in support of NATO's action and humanitarian relief for the hundreds of thousands of Kosovo refugees, and dispatched a leadership delegation to Macedonia in April to visit the refugee camps.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org