CARE Coming to the Aid of Hospitals and Families in Iraq

CARE
Friday, 11 April 2003

Security Is Number One Requirement for Delivering Humanitarian Aid

Dedicated CARE staff are helping restore water to hospital operating rooms, dispensing hygienic supplies and distributing clean drinking water to families in Iraq, but the lack of security in the country makes it extremely difficult to deliver lifesaving aid.

"Security is the number one need right now," said Peter Bell, CARE USA president "Hospitals must be protected, and law and order restored. People are in urgent need, but it is difficult to reach everyone who needs help when there is fighting and looting in the streets."

CARE staff in Baghdad report that many hospitals have been looted, and other hospitals have closed in order to protect their already scant supplies. Margaret Hassan, CARE's Country Director for Iraq, is on the ground in Baghdad to determine if it is safe for staff to return to the city from the nearby towns of Heet, Anah and Baghdadi, where they relocated when fighting became intense in the capital. Staff have been distributing water and hygiene supplies to more than 25,000 people in those areas. Before relocating from Baghdad staff had been manning a mobile, round-the-clock repair workshop that restored water to hospital operating rooms, repaired generators and dispensed hygiene materials. Clean drinking water is in increasingly short supply across the country as dilapidated water treatment plants and water systems collapse and others fail due to cuts in electrical power and damage from the war.

"We have nearly 5,000 relief kits assembled in Jordan to ship to Iraq as soon as safety permits," adds Meghan Chisholm emergency coordinator for CARE in Amman. Each kit provides a family of four with soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, toothpaste, toothbrushes, bath towels and other personal hygiene items. CARE also has positioned lactose-free milk for malnourished children who are lactose-intolerant. One in four children in Iraq is chronically malnourished.

CARE is also prepared to ship to Iraq a mobile repair workshop, pipes and fittings for hospitals and health care centers, and food for the emergency feeding of children. CARE is planning to distribute food to the most vulnerable people, including women and children, the disabled and the elderly. These people depended heavily on rations distributed through the United Nations Oil for Food program before the war. As the only international non-governmental organization that has worked continuously in the center and south of Iraq since 1991, CARE has witnessed firsthand the effects of the last Gulf War and subsequent sanctions on ordinary families. In the days and weeks ahead, CARE expects to expand its ongoing humanitarian operations in Iraq, providing lifesaving aid to a growing number of people in need.

"We are helping as many people as we can in the areas where it is safe to do so. The lack of security is the principal roadblock to our efforts," said Bell. "The troops are the authority on the ground right now, and we urge that they restore law and order as soon as possible so that families and hospitals – which already are overwhelmed and under-supplied – can receive help from humanitarian agencies like CARE. If all the hospitals and schools are stripped bare, then it will make rebuilding the country that much more difficult."

For more information, or to contact CARE, see their website at: www.care.org