OXFAM AID TOPS NEW PEAK

By John Horgan
CATHOLIC relief and welfare organisations all over the world this week were allocated over £18,000 by the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. The money was divided between countries in Africa, Europe and Asia.
The grants to Catholic organisations come to almost a quarter of the total of over £80,000 allocated by Oxfam on this occasion. Altogether this year Catholic organisations have received several hundred thousand pounds. Oxfam's total grants have for the first time passed £1.000.000.
"Catholic projects account fo• a very large percentage of ou total aid programme," Mr. H Kirkley, Oxfam's director, tolc me this week. "We provide the main source of income from the British Isles for many Catholic organisations overseas."
Non-sectarian
The great majority of allocations arc made through the major Catholic relief agencies : the Catholic Relief Services, the National Catholic Welfare Committee, and the International Catholic Migration Commission.
"Oxfam's aid is of course entirely non-sectarian," Mr. Kirkley added. "Projects under the care of some twelve major religious denominations—including Lutheran. Methodist, Anglican. Quaker and Congregational — are currently being supported by Oxfam grants.
Most of the aid leaves the United Kingdom in the form of money, but over 70 tons of clothing is also shipped every month. together with medicine, blankets and food for needy people in 52 countries.
A major "crash" relief programme is being mounted at the moment to provide prefabricated housing for victims of the recent Persian earthquakes.
Later this month Oxfam will launch a campaign asking manufacturers to help refugees by providing "seconds" and discards which can either be sent abroad or sold in one of the Committee's two shops in Oxford and Guildford. These shops already raise over £40.000 each year, and others are to be opened wherever possible.
The new allocations made this week are: FAR EAST: Macao Catholic Relief Services—£1.000 for a kitchen to feed 500 children at the Missao de Fatima.
INDIA: Thomas A. Dooley Foundation—r8.430 for a mobile X-ray unit for Tibetan refugees in Northern India. St. Philomena's Convent, Trivandrum — £500 for orphanage dormitories. Sisters of Charity. Bengal. and St. Ignatius' Orphanage, Andhra Pradesh—£250 each for welfare work. St. John Bosco Shrine, Cherapunji—f200.
Congo
NEAR EAST: Our Lady of Consolation convent, Tanail, Lebanon —£1,500 to rebuild the dispensary. Another £500 to support carpentry and commerce classes in Lebanon refugee camps.
AFRICA: Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Congo—£6,250 to buy two five-ton trucks for transporting food and medicine in Lower Congo. Franciscan Convent, Kimangao, Kenya—£500 for hospital extensions.
Fr. Pire, Dominican winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, who is to visit Oxfam headquarters in two weeks' time, has already received £4,500 for irrigation work on his "Island of Peace" project in East Bengal.
"We are looking forward very much to Fr. Pire's visit," said Philip Barron, Oxfam Press Officer. this week. "We hope that he will tell us all about his project." Over £4.000 has also been granted to a Catholic-sponsored project in South Vietnam to buy deep-water fishing boats for native fishermen.
Details of other major Catholic projects assisted by Oxfam during the past year include: FAR EAST: Sto. Agostinho Fathers. Macao — £5,200 for welfare work among Chinese and Portuguese refugees. St. Columban's Clinic, Chunchon (Korea) and the Catholic Working Boys Home in Continued on page 7, col. S