Church aid for African bodies

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32775, 27 November 1971, Page 19

Church aid for African bodies

Churches and their related agencies were asked last week by the World Council of Churches to provide material aid worth $340,000 for use by three liberation movements in southern Africa.

The appeal was made by the council’s Commission on

Inter-Church Aid, Refugee and World Service at its semi-annual meeting in Montreux, Switzerland. Under the W.C.C. plan, churches and church agencies will supply the three movements with basic drug kits for use in medical work, plus exercise books, pencils and rulers for schools. In addition they were asked for shipments of high-protein foods such as milk powder and stockfish. Cotton cloth will be purchased locally for clothes. Medical assistance is estimated at $72,800; educational materials at $110,000; food at $90,200 and cloth material at $lO,OOO. In addition $57,000 will be sought for transport costs.

Beneficiaries of the scheme, which is intended to put the help given by churches on a more regular basis, are the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique; the People’s Movement for the Liberation |of Angola; and the African Independence Party for Guinea and Cape Verde Islands. All three liberation movements run health services and schools in the liberated areas of their countries.