FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 11, 2008
Contact: Joy Portella, 206-437-7885, jportella@sea.mercycorps.org
- As many as 50,000 people forced to flee their homes
- Agency starts assessment and mobilizes resources
Portland, OR - The global relief and development agency Mercy Corps is responding to the needs of displaced people in Georgia after intense fighting erupted there last week. The agency is assessing the humanitarian situation, and has allocated resources to get aid to people immediately.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that between 10,000 and 20,000 people have fled from the northern province of South Ossetia south into Georgia. Russian sources estimate that 30,000 people have fled north into Russia.
Mercy Corps has already purchased essential food items - including bread, rice and oil - and plans to distribute them to hundreds of displaced people in the coming week. Likely distribution points will be in and around the capital city of Tbilisi.
"Civilians are the innocent victims caught in the middle of this conflict," said Randy Martin, director of Mercy Corps' Global Emergency Operations team. "Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes, and are in desperate need of basics like shelter, food and fuel."
Fighting started last Thursday following months of heightened tensions in the semi-autonomous region of South Ossetia. The fighting escalated when Russia sent troops and tanks into the area. Pressure is now building in another disputed northern province, Abkhazia, and violence is reportedly spilling into other parts of Georgia.
Mercy Corps has worked in Georgia since 2000. The agency's programs support rural development by helping farm families increase production, gain access to financing, form farmer groups, and connect to markets and information. Mercy Corps has also helped cultivate young leaders working to build an inclusive, multi-ethnic society in Georgia.
Mercy Corps was on the verge of launching a new program in South Ossetia aimed at increasing interaction between ethnic Ossetian and Georgian youth when the conflict began.
HOW TO HELP:
Mercy Corps
Georgia Crisis Fund
Dept NR
PO Box 2669
Portland, OR 97208
www.mercycorps.org
1-800-852-2100
About Mercy Corps:
Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided more than $1.5 billion in assistance to people in 106 nations. Supported by headquarters in North America and Europe, the agency's global programs employ 3,500 staff worldwide and reach more than 16.4 million people in more than 35 countries. For more information, visit www.mercycorps.org.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
A Russian self-propelled howitzer enters the village of Dzhava near Tskhinvali, the capital of Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia, August 11, 2008. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko (GEORGIA) ...
