Churches send Iraq medical aid

National Catholic Reporter, July 18, 2003 by Dennis Coday

WASHINGTON -- Church World Service, the relief arm of the National Council of Churches, is shipping $1.2 million in medical supplies to Iraq to bolster the country's debilitated health care system. In the chaotic aftermath of the war, Iraqi hospitals are operating at only half their capacity, the United Nations reported.

While the United States military remains preoccupied with security and law enforcement, the burden of meeting the medical needs of Iraqis falls on humanitarian agencies, said the Rev. John McCullough, executive director of Church World Service.

Supported by 36 Protestant and Orthodox denominations, the agency has been working to meet medical needs in Iraq since the start of the first Gulf War more than a decade ago.

Malnutrition among children has. doubled in some parts of Iraq since the start of the war, according to a U.N. report. Already a widespread problem due in part to economic sanctions, acute malnutrition among children under the age of 5 in Baghdad has increased to almost 8 percent, marking a 4 percent rise since the start of the war.