Relief Group Sets up Medical Distribution Center in Ethiopia

MAP International (formerly Medical Assistance Programs) has set up a medical distribution center in Addis Ababa, the capital of famine-ravaged Ethiopia. MAP is in the final stages of contract negotiations with the Ethiopian government.

Robert Moore, MAP’s director of institutional health services, said his organization usually works through existing mission and relief organizations. However, the effects of famine in Ethiopia have so intensified medical needs that a full-scale operation was deemed appropriate.

“Any time you get people congregating, as they are at the feeding centers, the chances of diseases spreading increase,” Moore said. He cited typhus as one example of a current epidemic. “Because it is spread by body lice, typhus spreads quickly among masses of people. And most of these people are weak from malnutrition, which makes it especially difficult for them to fight disease and infection.”

The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association has endorsed MAP as the organization best equipped to handle gifts-in-kind for East Africa. MAP has agreed to provide at least $1.5 million worth of health supplies. In addition, the organization will provide medical consultation to agencies involved in the relief effort.

Some have expressed concern that Ethiopia’s Marxist regime has politicized famine aid; however, Moore said MAP has no such reservations. He said that MAP, through the agencies it serves, has channeled medical supplies to government supporters and rebels alike. “We have never received any reports that the government has interrupted aid to famine victims.”

However, Moore said that MAP “is very concerned” about the plight of the church in Ethiopia. He expressed hope that the efforts of Christians to alleviate human suffering there eventually would soften the government’s harsh treatment of religious groups.

According to Christian Response International, a group that monitors religious rights, thousands of churches have been closed, hundreds of believers have been imprisoned, and several church leaders have disappeared since Ethiopia’s Marxist regime gained power more than a decade ago.

On a recent trip to Ethiopia, Franklin Graham, president of a relief organization called Samaritan’s Purse, expressed concern that evangelism is being overlooked in the urgency to meet physical needs. Graham said evangelical church leaders in Ethiopia feel limited because most of the funds they receive are earmarked for relief and development work.

Samaritan’s Purse has provided $75,000 to be used in caring for evangelists and families of jailed church members.

“One hundred years from now, every person alive today in Ethiopia will be dead,” Graham said. “Ultimately, what will matter most is whether we introduced them to the only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

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