January 9, 2004
by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA), responding to last month's devastating earthquake in Iran, has distributed $100,000 in humanitarian assistance.

PDA also has issued a churchwide appeal for money in support of its continuing relief efforts.

The money is part of $150,000 earmarked for the quake-torn region. A tremor that measured 6.6 on the Richter scale of ground motion struck the ancient city of Bam on Dec. 26, leveling most of the town, killing an estimated 30,000 people and destroying a historic 2,000 year-old fortress near the city in southeastern Iran.

PDA is sending $50,000 to the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), and $50,000 to Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). Most of the money will be used to buy food, tents and other shelter and relief supplies, said Susan Ryan, the PDA coordinator.

PDA and both those groups are partners in Action by Churches Together (ACT), an alliance of churches and relief agencies whose headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland. Ryan said PDA is working closely with its partners in the area as they continue assessing the needs of the people in the affected area, where 80 percent of the mud-brick and straw buildings are believed to have been destroyed.

Thousands of Iranians have been sleeping outdoors or in tents because of aftershocks that raised fear of further disasters. Temperatures have dropped to near freezing most nights since the earthquake.

PDA coordinates the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s disaster-response operations in the United States and around the world.

"There has been extensive sharing of information and trip reports among all of the ACT alliance members, allowing us to be effective and strategic in our response," Ryan said. "PDA has been asked to take the lead in doing the psychosocial assessment. This will be done jointly with Norwegian Church Aid and the Middle East Council of Churches."

Ryan said money going to the MECC will be channeled through Church World Service (CWS). Some will be used to pay for an earlier CWS shipment of medical supplies.

CWS is the relief, development, and refugee-assistance ministry of 36 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States.

Of the PDA money, $50,000 will come from the One Great Hour of Sharing offering and $100,000 from designated funds in PDA's general relief account, Ryan said. The MECC was originally to receive $10,000, she said, but the amount was increased on the basis of revised needs assessments.

On Jan. 6, MECC delivered 15,120 cans of jam and other canned food to the area, according to its Web site. It also sent 13,664 cans of cooking oil and 3,812 tins of canned fish, and expects to have 500 tents ready for delivery on Jan. 10.

Norwegian Church Aid recently dispatched a shipment of stoves and 400 large tents from Jordan to the Bam area.

Iranian-born Mehdi Abhari, Presbyterian liaison to church partners in Iran, is expected to leave for the region on Jan. 15 to join the international relief effort.

Presbyterian Ann Huntwork, a retired missionary who served in Iran, may visit the affected region to assess survivors' psychosocial needs. PDA is trying to secure a visa for Huntwork, 72.

Ryan said Huntwork, whose background is in social work, would work in partnership with the MECC. She and her husband, Bruce, worked as missionaries in Iran for 10 years between 1957 and 1972.

"I'm really grateful for that opportunity," said Huntwork, a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland, OR. "Anything that I could ever do to make life easier for people in Iran, I would do. I love the country very much."

PCUSA News Service