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Relief Agencies Struggle with Fallout of Rwandan Conflict

Episcopal News Service. September 7, 1994 [94156]

As relief workers struggle with chaos and violence in the refugee camps of Tanzania and Zaire and prepare for possible conflict in neighboring Burundi, church relief organizations are working to establish a stable base through which to provide aid to the shattered people of Rwanda.

Katerina Whitley, director of public relations for the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, said, "The situation remains horrendous. Although another catastrophe will come along and take the headlines to another place, we will have money coming into Rwanda for years to help rebuild devastated lives." Whitley said grants were pending, but the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief was waiting on a situation report from the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund in Canada. The Anglican Church in Canada is coordinating relief efforts for the Anglican Communion because they are able to communicate most readily with the Rwandans, who speak french.

Robert Shropshire, development coordinator for Africa/Middle East for the Primate's fund in Canada, said that assistance was reaching the most needy thanks to a partnership between "lead agencies like the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation in the north, and implementing agencies composed of local church groups and international relief agencies at the sites of crisis." Shropshire said that "Rwandan society is polarized and implementation of church programs would begin there only after the needs of reconciliation were addressed."

From January 1993 until the present, the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief sent a total of $320,616 for aid to victims of the conflict in Rwanda. Of that amount, $181,467 was sent since the start of the violence in April, 1994, providing food, medicine, blankets, clothes and orphan care.

Local response strong

Whitley said the response of the local church people in Tanzania and Zaire and Rwanda has been tremendous. "All the houses of church people are full of refugees. And this is where the continuing relationship with the churches in Rwanda and other countries is so important because we need to work with them if we are going to provide assistance to the most needy," she said. In Zaire, for example, successful relief efforts are linked with the African Community Initiatives Support Team, a program run jointly by a team of Rwandan refugees from both major ethnic groups, including an Anglican bishop, and the English head of a community health institute in Zaire.

In Rwanda, the situation is complicated by reports that the churches there played a role in the killings. According to World Council of Churches deputy director Samuel Isaac, who returned recently from a fact-finding mission, conversations with government officials and church members emphasized that "the church itself stands tainted, not by passive indifference, but by errors of commission as well."

Aid still needed

The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief is accepting applications for medical workers and french-speaking psychological counselors who have experience dealing with victims of violence. In addition, the relief agencies are still seeking nurses, doctors and public health specialists who have expertise with on-going, crisis-created nutritional problems and maternal/child health restoration.

The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief is still seeking contributions to ease the suffering in the refugee camps. Those wishing to send money should designate their contributions to "Rwandan refugees" and send them to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017.

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