Kiwi arrives in Lebanon

Kiwi Judy Moore is one of five members of World Vision's Global Rapid Response Team (GRRT) who arrived in Beirut on board a French naval vessel yesterday. The team has been waiting for weeks in Cyprus to get safe passage into Lebanon. Judy Moore will be leading relief operations as she has done in other conflict situations including Iraq, Kosovo and Rwanda.

World Vision has submitted an advocacy statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is to have a Second Special Session on the Situation in Lebanon in a few hours time. In the statement the aid agency appeals to all parties to protect children, cease all hostilities and negotiate a peaceful end to this crisis. They also appeal for unrestricted humanitarian access to civilian populations in Lebanon to deliver relief assistance.

Meanwhile operations in a World Vision Australia-funded child sponsorship programme in southern Beirut are on hold, following the dropping of flyers by the Israel Defence Force over an area in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Relief and development work in the Chiah area was suspended yesterday, the first time since the beginning of the crisis, almost a month ago.

The flyers asked inhabitants to evacuate areas in order to avoid the consequences of severe air strikes. The six World Vision and 20 volunteers ensured that the communities we work with had enough supplies for two days before departing the area.

The 'Ain El Remaneh' programme in the southern suburbs, is home to 500 sponsored children and their families and is the most insecure of the three World Vision child sponsorship programmes Beirut, under continuous threat of aerial bombardment.

ENDS

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