Regional And Tribal Leaders Join Franklin Graham’s Relief Organization To Help Those Suffering In Afghanistan

Samaritan's Purse
Friday, 4 January 2002

Samaritan's Purse Staff and Volunteer Doctors Turn Abandoned Building into Hospital

In a war-ravaged country, immobilized by winter, international relief organization Samaritan's Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, is working with regional and tribal leaders to open a 20-bed hospital in the ancient Afghan city of Kholm - where people have little access to medical care.

Along with hospital supplies, equipment, and medical staff, North Carolina-based Samaritan's Purse is airlifting supplies to build temporary shelters for families left homeless by the recent fighting. Meanwhile, the organization continues to provide blankets, clothing, food, and essential items to families in refugee camps in northern and western Afghanistan.

Drought, exposure, fighting, and land mines have multiplied the burden on local doctors, and Kholm, one of the largest cities in northern Afghanistan, has been wracked by years of ethnic strife. Currently, Kholm has only three doctors, with no hospital, and the local clinic has no running water or electricity.

"It's not easy to set up a hospital so quickly, but it's even harder to imagine these people suffering through the winter without medical care," said Franklin Graham, president and chairman of Samaritan's Purse. "They need help now, and we're ready to help them." Samaritan's Purse was prepared to move quickly on the medical front, having established hospitals previously in war zones of Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sudan. The organization recently found the bullet-riddled shell of an abandoned building in Kholm and now the building is being repaired and renovated by veteran staff who helped rebuild hundreds of burned-out houses in Kosovo.

Dozens of doctors and nurses have volunteered to travel to Afghanistan through Samaritan's Purse. Some of them will work alongside the Afghan doctors in the local clinic until the hospital opens in the coming weeks.

Samaritan's Purse has already sent two shipments of medicine and supplies designed to meet the basic needs of 20,000 people for the next three months, with additional materials scheduled to arrive later this month. The hospital, which Samaritan's Purse plans to operate for at least two years, will have rooms for major and minor surgeries, as well as 20 beds for recovering patients.

In the midst of war, Afghan children recently received bright surprises from kids in the United States, as Operation Christmas Child-Samaritan's Purse's largest annual project-is delivering more than 100,000 gift-filled shoe boxes in Afghanistan.

Samaritan's Purse is an international Christian relief organization working in more than 100 countries around the world. The last two years, Samaritan's Purse has been rated the most efficient religious charity by SmartMoney magazine.

For more information, or to contact Samaritan's Purse, see their website at: www.samaritanspurse.org