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April 30, 2003FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
World Vision delivers relief to Iraqi hospital pounded by bombs
· Al-Rutbah doctors struggle to cope with near destruction of hospital that serves a community of as many as 20,000 people in western Iraq.
· Coalition bombing destroyed operating facilities, treatment rooms, medical supplies and medical records.
· Humanitarian team delivers desperately needed medical supplies.
AL-RUTBAH, Iraq—World Vision delivered medicine, blankets and other humanitarian supplies to a heavily damaged hospital in war-torn Al Rutbah on Monday. This was the Christian humanitarian agency’s first venture into Iraq since before the war. The only hospital in the district, it serves as many as 20,000 people.
District health officials reported that coalition bombing early in the war virtually destroyed the hospital. “The town and hospital are without phones, power and running water,” said World Vision relief worker Al Dwyer. “The hospital has lost everything, including patient and medical records.”
Doctors have set up a temporary facility to handle basic health-care needs, though the facility lacks operating and treatment rooms. Al-Rutbah is located about 60 miles from the Jordan border inside Iraq, a five-hour drive from World Vision’s base in Amman, Jordan.
WHO: Relief worker Al Dwyer, who has worked in some of the most dangerous humanitarian emergencies of recent years – including in East Timor, Angola and Afghanistan
WHEN: Thursday, May 1, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT
WHERE: Available by phone from Amman, Jordan
WHAT: World Vision, the Christian humanitarian organization, has sent urgently needed relief supplies to Al-Rutbah, Iraq.
CONTACTS: mediainfo@worldvision.org
