Council Of Churches' Aid Plans For The Hungry

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31542, 2 December 1967, Page 5

Council Of Churches ' Aid Plans For The Hungry

(Speciailv written for “The Press” by

the Rev. R M. O’GRADY,

assistant secretary of the National Council of Churches)

During the next five minutes the American Government will spend $250,000 waging the war in Vietnam. That is $BO,OOO more than the National Council of Churches in New Zealand will spend in the whole of next year fighting poverty in 45 different countries around the world.

Yet this sum, small by world standards, will save hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives, give new hope of employment to others, and express the compassion of New Zealand Christians to people of many nations. Some will be alive 12 months from now, solely because people in New Zealand cared enough to give.

Voluntary aid programmes of this kind have recently been criticised as being a sop to an affluent people’s conscience. The accusation is, I think, quite true. To feed the millions in need requires more than voluntary giving and demands massive aid from the government of rich lands like our own. But in the absence of this kind of response from the top, what do ordinary people like ourselves do? Can we ignore the plight of the dying? Dare we withhold the few dollars which represent the difference between life and death? It is certainly true that some of our gifts represent conscience money, but thank God there is a conscience at all. Last year church congregations responded splendidly. More than 1200 church meetings sent gifts, and this represents a very high proportion of all the churches in the country. This Christmas it is expected that a similar number will share in the programme and thus ensure that the $160,000 which is already pledged will go to overseas projects.

Vietnam The first $BOOO will go to Vietnam. In this unhappy land the situation continues to deteriorate. The N.C.C. has two nurses working among refugees near Tuy Hoa and an accountant from Christchurch in Saigon. Their regular reports and letters keep the council in touch with the need. Refugees now exceed 2 million: in the last three months the nurses treated 8000 patients; 85 per cent of all napalm cases being brought to the clinic are young children. So the sad story continues.

Our fraternal workers are not spending time arguing the political rights of the war. They are confronted with so much first-hand suffering that they must simply roll up their sleeves and tackle the job in hand. Mortar attacks nearby have curtailed some

of their activity In Tuy Hoa and the nurses now leave earlier in the morning to ensure they are back in the safety of their quarters before nightfall. At Christmas, churches will be giving the kind of money which will ensure that the refugee programme can continue. The presence of workers on the spot will ensure that aid given will not end up on the black market, but get to the place where the need is greatest. India Always on the aid agenda is India. A cartoon in an Indian paper last month showed an official looking out of his office window. It is starting to rain and he is saying to his secretary: “Well, we had better close the books for the drought appeal, and open the appeal for flood relief.” This sums up part of the country’s dilemma as it moves from one crisis to another.

It is a land of so many contradictions that one almost despairs of seeing any real solution. Certainly if aid” is

seen only in terms of sending food, then the country is a bottomless pit and nothing could ever be sufficient. For this reason church aid programmes have switched to assisting in basic self-help projects. Since ours is also an agricultural country we have an important role to play. The N.C.C. now has tractor drivers, water specialists and refugee workers serving as fraternal workers. One of these is Malcolip Kennedy, of Hastings, who took advanced degrees in Soil and Water Hydrology at Lincoln College. In the villages he is giving instruction in the right use of water and helping with the installation of much needed water pumps. At least $7OOO will be needed next year from our churches to support a programme of agricultural development at Madras College, village food development schemes and the relief operations of the Indian Christian Council.

Disaster This year $lB,OOO is set aside to meet the crises of the next 12 months. Natural disasters strike swiftly and without warning. When this happens in the West we can usually cope with the eventuality and insurance claims will often cover the task of rebuilding. Throughout Asia, Africa, and South America, a disaster will more often mean the loss of everything. Earthquakes in Turkey in the past few months symbolise what this means. Thousands are made homeless, and equal numbers are killed or maimed. Where can such persons turn for assistance? It is helpful for Christians in New Zealand to know that their giving has enabled a world-wide emergency operation to move into action within 24 hours of a disaster in any part of the world. Blankets, food, soap, clothing —all are there within hours.

When refugees and wounded are left in the wake of a conquering Israel army; when homes are washed away by floods in India or Japan: when typhoons strike in the

Philippines or Hong Kong: when earthquakes shatter areas of Iran or Turkey, the church is mobilised to meet the need. The world network which answers these calls is quite impressive. New Zealand takes its place in what is described in Geneva as “the first eleven.” These are the eleven nations able to make the greatest financial gifts when an emergency strikes. When we read in our newspapers of a disaster in a developing nation, the N.C.C. can expect td receive a cable within hours setting out the extent of the disaster and the amount of money immediately required.

Hungry Humans Apart from the gifts to Vietnam, India and to meet disasters, there are many other projects to be met in 1968. Each one deserves a book in itself. A girls’ hostel in Tahiti, trade training for young refugees in Jordan Valley, a youth centre in Tanzania, a rehabilitation centre for amputees in Korea, tuberculosis wards in Nepal, hospitals, feeding programmes and refugee projects. The list goes on. Dr D. Farris, of the F.A.0., has put the human dilemma in striking terms when he writes: “If you lined up in a queue round the world, all the hungry and malnourished people in the world, one every two feet, the queue would go round the world for 25,000 miles and reappear. Then it would go round the world again, not twice, or ten, but twenty-five times, so that if you drove a motor car for 500 miles a day it would take you three and a half years to get to the end of the line, passing a hungry human being every two feet.” This is the great crisis of twentieth century man: a crisis which the late John F. Kennedy said we have the means to conquer. We have the means, but not the will. This Christmas many thousands of New Zealand Christians will show their concern for humanity as they support the National Council of Churches appeal for half the world in need.