Exhibit Of Afghan Child Refugee Art

Catholic Relief Services
Friday, 22 February 2002

An exhibit of Afghan children's art, sponsored by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the Capital Children's Museum, will open in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2002. Entitled WHAT IS HOME? WHERE IS HOME? Life Through the Eyes of Afghan Child Refugees, the exhibit includes artwork created by Afghan refugee children through a CRS-sponsored education project in Pakistan. "This is an opportunity to raise awareness of the significant challenges Afghanistan faces in its post-war development," said Ken Hackett, Catholic Relief Services Executive Director. "The artwork gives voice to all Afghan children, particularly refugees, connecting their lives to ours in a tangible way."

An opening reception of the exhibit, which will be in view at the Capital Children's Museum through June 30, 2002, will take place at the museum on February 28, from 6:00-8:00 pm. The reception will be hosted by His Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, with Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Representative Henry Hyde (R-IL), chairman of the U.S. House International Relations Committee, serving as honorary co-chairmen.

Since December 2000, CRS has been working to provide humanitarian assistance to thousands of families in the Shamshatoo Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, which has been home to as many as 60,000 refugees. As part of a basic education project sponsored by CRS – for which the agency delivered school supplies, food and clothing to Afghan boys and girls – more than 3,000 children ages 3 to 15 participated in a drawing contest held in schools of the camp last August and September. Teachers selected 153 of the best drawings, of which 28 were forwarded to CRS' world headquarters in Baltimore.

The drawings, which depict life in the refugee camp, scenes of war in Afghanistan and journeys across the mountains as families fled the violence, depict the harsh realities these children know. The hope is that their display in the United States might help to draw attention to the plight of Afghan refugees, particularly Afghan refugee children.

"The exhibit will provide a lesson in social studies, reflecting on life in a refugee camp, as well as the history of, and current conditions in, Afghanistan," Hackett said. "And children who visit the exhibit will have an opportunity to send expressions of support and solidarity for the Afghan children at a letter-writing station."

Pakistan hosts approximately two million Afghan refugees, who have fled during the war against the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan, the ensuing years of civil war and, now, the country's current crisis. In recent years, a withering drought has made farming nearly impossible in the country, adding to the refugee crisis.

CRS has worked in Pakistan since 1954, including providing assistance to Afghan refugees during Afghanistan's war against the Soviet occupation. In the last two years, CRS has increased its emergency activities to respond to the drought and Afghan refugee crisis while continuing development activities in the areas of agriculture, education, health, micro-finance and peace building. The agency works with more than 180 national partner organizations in Pakistan. The agency is also working to support emergency relief and long-term reconstruction projects in Afghanistan.

Catholic Relief Services is the official overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Founded in 1943, the agency provides assistance to people in more than 80 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Catholic Relief Services provides assistance on the basis of need, not race, creed or nationality.

For more information, or to contact Catholic Relief Services, see their website at: www.catholicrelief.org