[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 64 (Wednesday, May 5, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H2773-H2776]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHURCHES IN INDIANA COME TOGETHER TO AID REFUGEES IN KOSOVO
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Northup). Under a previous order of the
House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, having visited the Balkans, and I was
privileged to be included in the trip with Senator Stevens and Chairman
Young a few weeks ago, I have been aggressively against this war which
I do not believe is winnable in the traditional sense. And it is time
to get a negotiated settlement and it is time to cut off the funding,
but I wanted to share a couple of things tonight about the terrible
things that have happened to the people there.
These are pictures that I took in Vranje, just north of Skopje, in
Macedonia. This shows just one of what I call the long white road to
the mountains. These are actually the shorter mountains. They rise
higher up. It is impossible to get ground troops through this area,
which many armies throughout hundreds of years have learned is
impossible.
This street goes on and on, miles and miles, and this is just one of
the camps. There were 23,000 people, we were told, in that camp when we
first came in. 8,000 additional people were added just that day.
These Albanian men were at the back of the place because they kept
asking us, ``Are the Apaches going to save us? Are they going to wipe
out the tanks?'' Of course, we had to tell them no, that is not what
Apaches are designed to do, but we wondered where they were getting
that information.
They have radios throughout the camp that are constantly broadcasting
to them that there is this hope that they are suddenly going to go
back.
These are some of the people trying to make do. These tents, this
size tent from USAID basically had supposedly four to eight people;
many of them I saw far more that. They get a couple of cans of food,
some bread and fruit each day, but they are desperately trying to make
a fire or something to heat it up.
As these camps are expanded to 30,000, 50,000 people and upwards, it
is just not going to work; nor are the restroom facilities, the water
facilities. Here people are desperately trying to stay clean.
In the Macedonian camps they are coming mostly out of the cities.
They were often booted out in the middle of the night. Most of the
people are well dressed. The clothes had not come from the U.S. This is
not able to be sustained over a long period of time.
This photograph was taken at the back of the camp. I had gotten
separated from the other Senators and Congressmen during the trip, as
well as the interpreter, and this man was trying to talk to me by going
like this. This girl had just come into the camp the night before but
spoke some English, said, ``May I help you try to translate?''
What he tried to tell me is he saw 20 people get their throats slit
just before he left; saw the mass grave before they torched his house
and he got out. That was just one of the many stories we heard.
He and all the others around them, when they were asked, first, do
you want to go back? ``Yes.'' If we get rid of Milosevic, you are going
to have to live under the Serbs. ``No, no, we are not going to live
under the Serbs. We are going to get rid of Milosevic,'' was what they
said, ``all Serbs and Milosevic.'' We heard that all through the camp.
We said, what will you do if you get back? You have to try to live
together. ``No, we are going to kill them.''
We have now the stories from like this man of the throats slit, and
it is not something that is going to lead to this kind of humanitarian
peaceful settlement that some people are dreaming of.
This girl here had just come into the camp the night before as well.
We stopped her. We saw she had diapers. And she broke down crying. I
will never be a professional photographer because I could not snap the
picture when her tears were coming down, but she is separated from her
family. She is worried about her little child and so on.
Now, I say that because I want to illustrate some of the things that
have been happening in my district. No matter what a person's position
is on the war, their heart has to go out to the refugees here or in the
other countries where they have been displaced.
I am pleased in my district that a number of churches and people have
reached out. We tried to make the point while we were over in Europe to
the ambassadors of seven nations, to NATO, that Europe has to pick up
the bulk of these funds, but we in America are going to have some
obligations as well.
One story from Pastor Rick Hawks, who heads a large church in Fort
Wayne, The Chapel, has coordinated with 8 churches: The Chapel;
Broadway Christian; Church of the Good Shepherd in Leo; Blackhawk
Baptist, also in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Fellowship Missionary Church in
Fort Wayne; North Park Community Church; Wallen Baptist Church.
We also had in my home church, Emmanuel Community Church, Abigail
Roemke coordinated this. They had so many clothes and toiletries and
stuff come in that it overwhelmed the distribution system that they
originally had planned. They had far more than they could actually get
directly there in that group.
Also Pastor Ron Hawkins' church, First Assembly of God, put together
a group that has two registered nurses, Nancy Grostefon and Dawn Rice,
and Dr. David Smith, a pediatric surgeon, to spend two weeks working in
two camps, and they raised the money through their church to underwrite
these nurses and this doctor going over.
In Fort Wayne we also have a large Macedonian population. George
Labamoff in the Fort Wayne-based Macedonian Tribune, the oldest
continually published Macedonian newspaper in the world, put together
the Macedonian Relief Fund. They have also have an effort to try to
raise money for the refugees in the countries.
Lastly, I wanted to read as much as I can of this letter. I visited
an alternative school in Columbia City on
[[Page H2774]]
Monday. One of the things that they were doing was also collecting
clothes and materials to send over to Kosovo. The teacher wrote me,
saying, ``Teaching current events to young people with little or no
background in geography or history is a challenge. So I try to make
every lesson relevant by working from what they do know. And at-risk
kids, just like at-war kids, know suffering and deprivation. Twenty-
five percent of my students have lost a parent to unnatural causes.
Twelve percent have been homeless.''
The point here, and I will insert the full thing in the RECORD, is
these kids know what it is like to suffer, and because of that they
collected clothes to help.
I hope all Americans understand we have a long-term responsibility
here to those who have been harmed, regardless of our position on the
war.
Madam Speaker, I have a series of articles that I would like to put
in the Record in association with this special order.
[From the Journal Gazette, Apr. 20, 1999]
Supplies Short in Balkans
(By Brian Meyer)
Fort Wayne residents will be asked today to donate clothing
and toiletry items to some of the 600,000 Kosovo refugees
fleeing Yugoslavia.
The Rev. Rick Hawks, pastor of The Chapel in Fort Wayne,
has scheduled a news conference for 10:30 a.m. today to
announce a citywide campaign to provide relief for Kosovo
refugees. Donations of clothing, shoes, socks, outerwear,
blankets, linens and toiletries will be accepted at seven
local churches until May 3. Hawks said the Fort Wayne
campaign, called ``Clothes for Kosovo,'' followed his
discussions with Dick and Barb Kelley, former Fort Wayne
residents now affiliated with the Slavic Gospel Association
in Rockford, Ill. Donations from Fort Wayne will be shipped
to Rob and Pam Provost, missionaries working in the Albanian
capital of Tirana.
``At this point, there's a shortage of everything,'' Hawks
said. ``Clothing, personal-hygiene items.
``We aren't dealing with anything perishable, just things
like clothes and blankets.''
Seven Fort Wayne churches will serve as collection sites:
The Chapel, 2505 W. Hamilton Road, Broadway Christian Church,
910 Broadway, Church of the Good Shepherd, 14711 Wayne St.,
Leo, Blackhawk Baptist Church, 7400 E. State Blvd, Fellowship
Missionary Church, 2536 E. Tillman Road, North Park Community
Church, 7160 Flutter Road, and Wallen Baptist Church, 1001 W.
Wallen Road.
Hawks said the local campaign is also seeking volunteers to
help sort and box the donated goods; anyone wishing to
volunteer can call The Chapel at 625-6200.
``The most labor-intensive thing is that everything has to
be sorted, and there has to be a quick quality check,'' Hawks
said. ``And then everything has to be boxed accordingly.''
Hawks said he is hoping to acquire enough donations to fill
a tractor-trailer rig. The Chapel will pay the $5,000 to ship
the donated materials to Albania.
``We think we'll fill that (truck rig) quite easily,''
Hawks said.
____
[From the News-Sentinel]
Locals Coordinate Efforts
(By Jennifer L. Boen)
Angie Stump and Bob Boughton are anguished by pictures of
Kosovo residents fleeting to refuge with just the clothes on
their backs.
``It's really heartbreaking to see what's going on there,''
said Boughton, a Tokheim Corp. employee in Fort Wayne, ``but
it's really good to help someone less fortunate.''
The desire to help is compelling Tokheim employees, local
churches and others in the Fort Wayne area to organize
assistance.
Well-meaning people and organizations eager to help
refugees or victims of disaster are well-advised to
coordinate their efforts through relief agencies to ensure
they are helping, not hindering the effort, said Stephen
Apatow, executive director of the Humanitarian Resource
Institute.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization works closely with
the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and
coordinates relief efforts.
Efforts can easily be wasted:
World Relief, which handled tons of donations for Hondurans
after Hurricane Mitch last year, said critical deliveries of
food, building materials and other goods were impeded by the
pileup at shipping ports of clothes and other noncritical
items.
Donated clothing piled 17-feet deep covered a 5-acre
collection site after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992.
Much of the clothing eventually was buried or incinerated.
Cases of antibiotics donated by U.S. pharmaceutical
companies were shipped to rural Honduran clinics without
Spanish labeling. Health-care providers, without instructions
in their language, could not use the medicine.
In Honduras, clothing donations were so abundant they
destroyed the business of small vendors there.
Thus, the United Nations agency has some good advice for
those with good intentions:
Before sending donations, work through national or
international groups that have workers on site where the
relief is needed, said Jennifer Dean, associate public
information officer for the High Commission for Refuges.
It is precisely why Stump, union counselor and project
organizer for UAW Local 1539 at Tokheim, is working with the
Salvation Army. The Salvation Army and the American Red Cross
both have workers in refugee camps.
The Salvation Army has issued national news bulletins
listing what people should and should not donate. Because at
least 45 tons of clothing awaits distribution, the agency is
not accepting more at this time, said Maj. Ken Reed, Fort
Wayne director.
``It is important that organizations have the logistics
thoroughly worked out for transportation and delivery of in-
kind donations, said Apatow.
``They need to have logistics set up for transport before
the goods are collected.''
It's also better to buy the building materials, tents,
medical supplies and food from retailers close to the people
who need them, said Apatow and Dean. It saves shipping costs
that could be better spent on direct service.
The cost savings could be enormous.
For example, the Chapel is organizing a clothing drive for
Kosovo refugees among several Fort Wayne churches.
Coordiantor Abigail Roemke said it would cost $5,000 to
ship an 8-by-8-by-50-foot container of clothing overseas. The
Chapel has made a connection to help distribute the clothes:
Rob Provost, an American living in Albania who is director of
Abraham Lincoln Center school in Tirana, Albania's capital.
Provot's school is working with Slavic Gospel Association
and Samaritan's Purse to assist Kosovo refugees. And
Samaritan's Purse has a contract with the United Nations
relief agency to set up a refugee tent camp near Tirana.
The clothes will go to evangelical churches in Albania for
distribution, Roemke said.
Relief organizers urge taking advantage of the enormous
purchasing power of organizations such as the Salvation Army
and the Red Cross. ``Buying things in bulk is much less
expensive,'' Dean said.
Immediatly and lower costs are two good reasons to buy
relief items as close as possible to the affected countries,
and there's a third:
The countries Kosovo refugees are fleeing to are poor.
``They are facing an enormous strain on their own
resources,'' Dean said.
It is why the United Nations agency is buying things
locally (overseas) as much as possible. ``We are paying
bakeries to make the bread for refugees,'' she said, helping
both refugees and their new communities.
The American Red Cross wants monetary donations only for
the Kosovo refugees, said Jean Wagaman, interim executive
director of the Northeast Indiana Chapter.
``The Red Cross estimates we need $1 million each week to
meet the needs of the refugees,'' she said. The organization
is helping provide shelter, food, health care and first-aid
teams.
For the U.N. High Commission for Refugees and other
organizations, the best way for people to help is to donate
money.
``We do not want to discourage anyone who wants to help,''
Dean said. ``All the enthusiasm of the caring and help is
wonderful.''
But getting the right kind of help is important, Apatow
said. Make monetary donations for Kosovo relief through these
organizations:
The American Red Cross--send to American Red Cross
International Response Fund, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C.
20013; or to the local chapter, marked Kosovo Relief, 1212 E.
California Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46825. Secure credit card
contributions can be made over the Internet at
www.redcross.org. Call 1-800-HELP-NOW, or 1-800-435-7669, for
more information and to make a donation.
Salvation Army--send to 3100 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis,
IN 46208; mark check ``Kosovo relief;'' credit card donations
can be made by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY, or 1-800-725-2769.
To donate clothing at one of eight area churches
participating in the Chapel's ``Clothes for Kosovo''
campaign, call Abigail Roemke at 625-6200; Contact Rob
Provost on the Internet at www.lincoln__intl.org.
The Salvation Army is accepting the following donations for
military personnel dispatched to the Kosovo region through
PROJECT SACKS:
Individual-size bottles of anti-bacterial soap; Packaged
candy (nothing that melts); Packaged snacks, peanuts, snack-
sized bags of potato chips, crackers and cookies; Writing
materials, cards, paper and envelopes; Games, playing cards,
pocket-sized crossword puzzle books and word-search books;
First-aid supplies, adhesive bandages, medical tape, gauze
pads and pocket-size Bibles.
____
[From the Journal Gazette, Apr. 30, 1999]
City Team Will Assist Kosovars
(By Joe Boyle)
It's a matter of faith for three local medical
professionals who are leaving in two weeks for Albania to
help Kosovar refugees.
Registered nurses Nancy Grostefon and Dawn Rice, and Dr.
David Smith, a pediatric
[[Page H2775]]
surgeon, will be on a Health Care Ministries medical team
working in refugee camps on the Kosovo-Albania border.
``The team itself, the way it came together, was
providential,'' said Marilyn Tolbert, missions director for
First Assembly of God Christian Center, 3301 Coliseum Blvd E.
The team will spend two weeks working at two camps, with a
total of 800 to 2,000 refugees in each, said the Rev. Ron
Hawkins, the church's pastor.
The Assemblies of God has traditionally been very active in
overseas missions, Tolbert said, and the local church has
sent people on different kinds of missions before.
But, she said, this is the first time the local church has
sent a medical mission into a refugee situation.
And for some of the team members, a chance to minister
through an overseas mission is a dream come true.
``It's been a desire of mine since I was in high school,''
said Grostefon, a cardiac critical care nurse from Parkview
Hospital. ``It's a God thing.''
Grostefon said she's been preparing for the trip by
watching many TV news reports and reading newspaper articles
about the Albanian refugee camps, which, according to some
reports, now hold more than 370,000 displaced people.
Despite the fact that she's traveling to the fringe of a
war zone, Grostefon said her family has supported her
decision.
``My kids are excited, and my husband knows this has been a
desire in my heart,'' she said.
Rice, who is executive director of the Fort Wayne Sexual
Assault Treatment Center, brings another special skill to the
mission.
``Rape in wartime is not new,'' she said. ``It's not new to
this war, and it won't be held back from the next war.''
Rice said helping rape victims from a war is different than
treating rape victims in the city because evidence collection
isn't a major part of the program.
But what's similar is tending to the injuries of the
assault. Rice said she hopes to help with both the
psychological and physical injuries the victims suffer.
And for Rice, it's a chance to do something instead of
watching it on television.
``It's so easy to watch what goes on and say, `I hope
someone takes care of them','' she said.
It's not just the three team members who are hoping to make
a difference.
Geoff Thomas, media coordinator for the Lutheran Health
Network, said Lutheran and St. Joseph hospitals are excited
to help the refugees through aiding the team.
The hospitals donated handmade quilts, T-shirts for
children, thermometers, stethoscopes, latex and non-latex
gloves, bandages, sutures, surgical kits and Ibuprofen, which
Thomas said is a hot commodity in the camps.
____
[From the News-Sentinel, Apr. 29, 1999]
Medical Team Going to Albania
(By Jennifer L. Boen)
``I'm being carried by God's hand,'' says nurse Dawn Rice,
who is preparing for a two-week medical work trip to Albania.
Rice is the director of the Fort Wayne Sexual Assault
Treatment Center and is experienced at helping people through
trauma. But knowing how to help the Kosovar women who have
been raped and tortured is something she can't fully grasp.
``I don't know what to expect,'' she said. ``All these
people will have post-traumatic stress syndrome . . . the
terrible things that are going on there.''
Rice is part of a team that includes Fort Wayne pediatric
surgeon Dr. David Smith of Lutheran Children's Hospital, and
Nancy Grostefon, a Parkview Hospital intensive care nurse.
The three will fly to Athens, Greece, on May 14 and travel
by land to a refugee camp just north of Tirana, the Albanian
capital. They plan to return to Fort Wayne on June 2.
The team is sponsored and supported by First Assembly of
God, 3301 Coliseum Blvd. E, and will be working under the
auspices of the denomination's Health Care Ministries
division, based in Springfield, Mo.
Also being sent from Fort Wayne will be a semi-truckload of
supplies and medicine donated by local hospitals. Bandages,
thermometers, stethoscopes, medical gloves, quilts and other
items are being donated by Lutheran Health Network.
Parkview Hospital is donating surgical and medical
supplies, as well as antibiotics, diaper rash cream and
vitamins. Van Wert Community Hospital in Ohio also is
donating supplies and medicine.
This is the first time a medical team is being sent from
the church, said Marilyn Tolbert, chairwoman of the church's
mission committee.
``We've always wanted to do a medical trip,'' Tolbert said.
The mission committee had contacted Health Care Ministries
earlier in the year and was told all openings for people to
participate in medical trips were filled.
Just two weeks ago, however, Health Care Ministries
contacted the church and asked for a team of people to go to
Albania. Church member Michelle Denton took on the task of
finding the right people.
``The type of people they want there are people who are
skilled in dealing with trauma,'' said Tolbert. ``. . . These
three were ready and willing to go.''
They will be working out of tents and giving medical care
to refugees who have crossed the Yugoslavia-Albania border,
she said. Rice hopes to help train other medical personnel to
identify those women who have been raped and give guidance on
how to treat for sexually transmitted diseases. ``A female
may be able to help better than a male,'' she said.
Smith has been on several previous medical work trips, but
it is a first-time experience for Rice and Grostefon.
Other local individuals and businesses are helping make the
trip possible. Root's Camp 'n Ski Haus and GI Joe's Army
Surplus have donated equipment and supplies. Brateman's Inc.
donated boots. American Freightways is donating the shipping
for the supplies to Springfield. An organization called
Convoy of Hope is packing and shipping the supplies.
``We have so much,'' said Tolbert. ``The poorest of us in
this area are worlds beyond people there. We don't have a
clue.''
The Rev. Ann Steiner Lantz is director of chaplains at
Parkview and chairwoman of the hospital's mission and
community outreach committee. She is coordinating the
hospital's involvement in the project.
``This is part of our mission and our Judeo-Christian
heritage,'' she said. ``It's the right thing to do.''
``What we're doing is a drop in the bucket,'' Lantz said.
``But if everyone does a little, we can help a whole lot.''
Donations to help with the cost of sending the medical team
from Fort Wayne can be sent to First Assembly of God, 3301
Coliseum Blvd. E., Fort Wayne, IN 16805.
____
[From the News-Sentinel]
Letters to the Editor
(By George Lebamon)
A group of prominent Macedonians from around North America
and Europe, aided by the Fort Wayne-based Macedonian Tribune,
the oldest continuously published Macedonian newspaper in the
world, have formed the Macedonian Relief Fund. The fund will
provide financial assistance to agencies in Macedonia to deal
with the impact of the NATO-Yugoslavia conflict.
Chris Evanoff, a Macedonian American entrepreneur in the
Detroit area, will chair the effort. He will be assisted by
people around the country, including myself.
``Nearly 150,000 Kosovar refugees have flooded the tiny
country of Macedonia in less than a week, creating a
humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions,''
Evanoff said. That total could increase to nearly a quarter
of a million refugees, he added. He also noted, ``Macedonia
was assured by NATO nations that sufficient assistance would
be available to care for these unfortunate victims of war and
ethnic cleansing. The delay in getting aid to the region has
crippled the Macedonian economy and its capacity to sustain
relief efforts.''
The refugee crisis so far has cost the Macedonia republic
more than $250 million. Total costs this year could exceed
$1.5 billion.
There are about 500,000 Macedonians in North America. The
group has established a Macedonian Relief Fund account at
Comerica Bank in Detroit. Contributions in the form of
checks, credit card payments and wire transfers can be mailed
to: The Macedonian Relief Fund, c/o Comerica Bank, 28801
Groesbeck, Roseville, MI 48066. Information requests can be
e-mailed to [email protected]. The group has also set up a
Web site at www.macedonianrelieffund.org to provide
additional information.
Macedonian Relief Fund for the Kosovo Refugee Crisis
The Macedonian Tribune, in cooperation with Macedonians in
the United States and Canada, is initiating a relief effort
to provide resources to the people of Macedonia who are
sharing what little they have with tens of thousands of
refugees from Kosovo.
Since 1991, Macedonia has feared a humanitarian catastrophe
if a crisis in Kosovo developed. Regrettably, this
catastrophe has been realized. The strain of tens of
thousands of refugees has crippled Macedonia, destabilizing
its economy and progress toward a democratic, free society.
Not only are refugees suffering, but so are the people of
Macedonia as their factories have been closed and work has
come to a halt.
Donations can be mailed to the Macedonian Relief Fund, c/o
Comercia Bank, 28801 Groesbeck, Roseville, MI 48066.
Reference bank account # 1851014603. To wire donations, use
transit/routing # 072000096, refer to the bank account number
and Comercia.
You can donate by check or with Visa or Master Card. No
donation is too small, none too large.
____
Marshall Center
Alternative High School,
Columbia City, IN, May 2, 1999.
Dear Congressman Souder: I am pleased to have been
requested to forward details of my students' Kosovo clothing
drive to you. I welcome this opportunity to illustrate the
scholastic merit of an unconventional learning activity:
Teaching current events to young people with little or no
background in geography or history is a challenge. (Most of
the alternative students cannot locate Europe on a map, and
one of them even thought NATO was a country.) So I try to
make every lesson relevant by working from what they do know.
And at-risk kids, just like at-war kids, ``know'' suffering
and deprivation.
[[Page H2776]]
Twenty-five percent of my students have lost a parent to
unnatural causes. Twelve percent have been homeless. Most
have survived on rice or beans or cereal for extended
periods. All have lost friends to violence, and all have been
outcasts most of their lives.
Do they understand the politics of this (or any) war? No.
But they understand what it means to be orphaned, to be
vagrant, to be hungry, to mourn, and to be hated. They fully
understand what it means to be a refugee.
So they collect clothes to help others--and end up helping
themselves in the process. In the process, they are working
cooperatively with adults (employees in the building, their
parents, community members) they normally consider
adversaries. They are earning respect for a job well-planned
and efficiently executed: In just two weeks a mere dozen
students have collected enough clothing, shoes, socks, and
undergarments for about 3600 refugees. Remarkably, these
students who anticipate failure and disapproval at every turn
are succeeding at something meaningful.
While they may never compose a thesis comparing and
contrasting the present conflict with events in the Balkans
leading up to WWII, they have learned to advertise a
campaign, schedule and share tasks, meet deadlines, calculate
weight and cubic yard measurements, arrange transportation
and more.
I'm glad you inquired about the project. We appreciate your
knowledge and support as you debate the merit of alternative
education programs. We need critical resources to raise
citizens as well as test scores.
Sincerely,
Rebecca R. Roady,
Teacher.
____________________