Churches Council Seeks Im. Dollars For Africa

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30364, 13 February 1964, Page 15

Churches Council Seeks Im. Dollars For Africa

Moved by horrifying reports of carnage in Central Africa the Wcrld Council of Churches has launched an appeal to its member churches for 1.000.0C0 dollars to set up a special fund for meeting current emergencies south of the Sahara.

The appeal was made by the executive committee of the council’s division of interchurch aid. refugee, and world service and was enthusiastically backed. The committee is requesting the executive committee of the World Council when it 'meets in Odessa to endorse the appeal and commend it to the churches. This was done to ensure that it should be brought authoritatively to the notice of the council's 209 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox member churches throughout the world. The proposed special fund for African emergencies will enable action to be taken to feed and resettle refugees in

African countries: start farming activities by providing tools, seeds, livestock, ploughs, and other equipment, and augment educational and medical services.

A co-ordinating officer will be appointed to bring together all the present programmes which the council sponsors for the sake of distressed persons south of the Sahara, and act in liaison with the All-Africa Conference of Churches, national Christian councils, churches, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as other governmental. intergovernmental and voluntary agencies. In setting up the fund, the division aims to help the 150 030 refugees from Rwanda, who have fled to Burundi, Uganda, Tanganyika, and the Congo: the 10.009 refugees . from the Sudan, the 100.000 ' refugees from Mozambique, and the victims of apartheid legislation.