ARC Provides Emergency Shelter to Macedonian Refugees

American Refugee Committee
Friday, 30 March 2001

The American Refugee Committee (ARC), responding to the latest outbreak of ethnic conflict in the Balkans, is providing emergency shelter to refugees who have fled into Kosovo to escape fighting in Macedonia.

ARC is expanding its existing shelter program in the Gjilan area of southeastern Kosovo to accommodate up to 250 ethnic Albanian families from northern Macedonia.

"ARC has been committed to vulnerable people in Kosovo since the war there ended in 1999," ARC President Anthony Kozlowski said. "We are ready to use our expertise to help the newest wave of people in the region who have been uprooted by violence."

More than 30,000 people have been displaced by fighting between Albanian insurgents and Macedonian armed forces, of which more than 4,000 have crossed over the border into Kosovo.

ARC's program helps host families to take in refugees by offering to help rehabilitate at least one warm, dry room. The homeowners take in guest families, often friends or family members, who would otherwise have nowhere to go. But often the space they have available is substandard and needs to be upgraded and insulated.

ARC, which has provided shelter assistance to 50 families from Macedonia during the last two weeks, is the leading organization in the area providing such help. It is now seeking funding to continue and expand its efforts.

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