Geneva, June 23, 1999
Two ACT teams yesterday delivered the network's first direct relief inside Kosovo since air strikes and increased warfare put a stop to ongoing relief work in Kosovo back in late March.

Trucks with relief food reached areas around the town of Dragash in southern Kosovo as well as Pec and Decani in the northwest. Ten tons of flour, salt and oil were delivered to Dragash yesterday. Today another 20 tons are due to go to the same area from ACT member Macedonia Center for International Cooperation (MCIC). The area of Dragash is populated by Kosovo Albanians and by ethnic Macedonian families. Both groups will be assisted.

ACT member International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) Tuesday reached Pec and the church's warehouses there with a first truck load of relief items including flour, beans, other food items and hygiene parcels. Throughout the crisis in Kosovo, the Orthodox monastery in nearby Decani has played an important part in assisting the mixed Albanian and Serb population of that part of Kosovo.

ACT International staff is at the same time setting up headquarters in Pristina and sub-offices Mitrovica and Pec. Apart from distributions of basic relief items, ACT-Kosovo is expected to include projects in the areas of rehabilitation and reconstruction of homes and other buildings, providing water and sanitation, mine awareness and clearance as well as psycho-social activities.

ACT International will assist members of all ethnic groups in Kosovo. ACT will also assist some of the approximately 50.000 Kosovo Serbs who in recent days have been displaced to other parts of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (F.R.Y.). Projects for other needy groups in Serbia, Montenegro and Vojvodina are also planned.

An ACT appeal for this work will be issued as soon as sufficient project details are known.

Assistance to displaced and refugees
Since the violence in Kosovo escalated during the spring of 1998, ACT International has assisted displaced persons there and in Montenegro. Smaller numbers of Kosovo refugees were assisted in 1998 and subsequently, and in much, much higher numbers, since late March this year in Albania and Macedonia. Kosovo refugees in Bosnia have been assisted as well.

Relief flights with food and shelter material from ACT International arrived in both Albania and Macedonia within the very first days of the refugee crisis in late March and early April. In both countries national ACT members, assisted by international ACT members have distributed relief food and water as well as established camps for thousands of refugees.

Psycho-social needs have been addressed by ACT International through a number of initiatives including trauma healing, education and social activities in the camps. ACT members have also distributed thousands of leaflets informing the refugees of their rights. Through publishing lists of inhabitants in the different camps, refugees were enabled to trace lost family members. Faced with the prospect of a quick return to Kosovo for many refugees, ACT also started mine awareness work in the camps this June.

Single biggest ACT Appeal ever
In 1998 ACT International raised some US $2 million for people affected by the crisis in Kosovo. By the middle of June 1999, ACT has raised more than US $ 23 million for the work in Albania, Macedonia and F.R.Y.

This is the biggest amount raised for one single emergency appeal since ACT was established in August 1995. This amount does not include the funds, which will be raised for the post-war work in the region.

The ACT members who carry out the active work in the region are: Diakonai Agapes (Orthodox Church of Albania), Agrinas/DIA, Macedonian Center for International Cooperation, International Orthodox Christian Charities, Norwegian Church Aid, Lutheran World Federation, UMCOR, Hungarian Interchurch Aid and the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organisation. Many other ACT members have seconded staff to operations in the region.

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