A donation of medicine and medical supplies totalling $750,000 has been provided by the American Jewish World Service organization for use in Mozambique, one of six African nations most seriously threatened by famine and disease.
The supplies will be airlifted to Mozambique by organizations involved in last weekend’s mammoth Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia, which raised, according to some estimates, $70 million for use for famine relief in drought stricken Africa.
Announcement of the donation to Live Aid was made by Laurence Simon, president of the American Jewish World Service, an international relief and development agency of the Jewish community, on the stage at Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. The World Service was the only private voluntary organization invited to take part in the benefit concert for famine relief.
“We are pleased to make this donation through Live Aid, as Live Aid is in a unique position to make a major impact both in the international relief effort underway in Africa and in the minds and hearts of people of good will everywhere,” Simon said. “We congratulate them and pledge continued cooperation.”
The emergency supplies will be distributed in Mozambique under the supervision of the American Jewish World Service and UNICEF. Logistical support for the distribution will be provided by the United Nations Office of Emergency Operations in Africa, which has arranged for UNICEF light aircraft and World Food Program boats to carry the supplies to the most needy.
Lawrence Philips, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Jewish World Service, said “We are making this commitment in keeping with the highest values of the Jewish people whose central ideal is the preservation of human life. Nowhere is that value more seriously threatened than in Africa today. And that is why we are eager to be part of this unprecedented effort to save lives which Live Aid represents.”
Formation of the American Jewish World Service based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was announced last May I at a New York news conference. Philips, who is also chairman of the Philips-Van Heusen Corp., said that the service was formed because there was no Jewish organization “dealing exclusively with development projects for non-Jews throughout the world. ” An estimated 100,000 people were reported to have died of famine related causes last year in Mozambique.
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