1988 "Only days ago, few people had heard of the town of Spitak, high in the Caucasus Mountains of northwest Soviet Armenia. But by last week it had become an international symbol of death and utter destruction, a place where the stench of corpses mingled with fading, desperate hopes that a voice, a whimper or a sigh might be heard from deep beneath the rubble. "A vision of horror," gasped a stunned Dr. Patrick Aeberhard, president of the French humanitarian aid group Medecins du Monde. An estimated 70% of the town's 20,000 population lies entombed, victims of the devastating earthquake that hit two weeks ago. Throughout the region, at least 50,000 are dead, 130,000 injured, 500,000 homeless." - by David Brand for TIME/CNN on 12/26/1988 2008 31.6% unemployed - 43% below poverty In 2005, Helen Little, invited the founders of Basic Needs Ministry to attend a missions fair at Horne Memorial United Methodist Church, Clayton, where a missionary presented his work and the needs in cool/cold climate Armenia. Area Methodist churches support M.E.R.C.I., which cooperates with the U.S. State Department in shipping disaster relief aid from Eastern North Carolina; telephone 888-440-9167. It is a very necessary service, providing excellent value, permitting us to move excess winter clothing from our area to needy families worldwide, and ensuring that the families do not have to pay for the clothing. Basic Needs cannot afford to ship a box to Armenia, but with help, we can provide the necessary materials to ship. $8,000 may seem an expensive shipping bill for a box, but the box is often 40' long. There are areas of the world, which simply do not have clothing available for their residents and/or where residents do not have money for clothing. A 40' container can easily hold more clothing than many local clothing stores carry in inventory, particularly if the clothing is baled. If a container held new clothing from a family department store, its value could easily be more than $1 million. On June 3, 2006, Basic Needs Ministry sent 990 sweaters and 1,750 ladies' long sleeve blouses worth over $110,000 to M.E.R.C.I. in Kinston, for a shipment to Armenia. In November another 2,386 garments were shipped with a value of $87,525. |