The Marathon Man
(War Child NL)
Marathon Man Peter Elsinga ran the The Hague Marathon for the second year in a row for War Child Netherlands. This year his 42 km endurance raised money and sponsors for a total of NLG 14.975 (about $7.500). Thank you Peter

New website for War Child Canada
(WAR CHILD CA)

Visit the War Child Canada website

Children's Packs reach Albania
(War Child NL)
During the last three weeks the truck convoys with Childen's Packs have been arriving in Albania.

The Children's Packs action raised a groundswell in the Netherlands, with thousands and thousands of individuals, companies and clubs gathering special packs for children containing essential food, clothing and a cuddly toy and crayons. In total nearly eighty thousand packs were raised! The first convoys of trucks distributed the boxes together with the Albanian NGO CRS directly to Kosovan children in and around major refugee areas in Skhoder, Kukes, Nures and Elbasan.

TMF holds fashion auction for War Child
(War Child NL)
The Dutch music television channel The Music Factory recently held a live fashion auction for War Child. Viewers could phone in to a phone panel, or do bidding through e-mail and chat-boxes on the TMFwebsite. The clothing was used by the vee-jays during the last yearly TMF Music Awards.

TMF viewers together raised 37.500 guilders (18 thousand dollars) with the auction, on live television the check was received by Marco Borsato, the Dutch patron of War Child, together with the director of War Child Netherlands Willemijn Verloop. The proceeds of the auction will be used to help children in many warzones around the world.

CEASE FIRE!
(War Child NL)
Freek de Jonge, Herman van Veen & Friends in Carre for the children of Kosovo. War Child Netherlands is pleased to announce that in the night of April 12 and 13 a concert will be held by many dutch artists for the victims of the war in Kosovo.

The concert will be held in the Royal Carre Theater in Amsterdam . At five to twelve in the evening the special concert will begin with the title 'Staakt het Vuren' (Cease Fire). The proceeds of this concert will go to War Child's aid projects for the children of Kosovo.

A live TV-registration of the concert will be made and broadcasted on Dutch national television on the next day. Participant in the concert are: Freek de Jonge, Jaap van Zweden, Mathilde Santing, Boudewijn de Groot, het Orkest van het Oosten, Marco Borsato, Robert Jan Stips, Remco Campert, Herman van Veen and others .

Education in Exile
(War Child NL)
“Afghanistan without educated women is like a bird with one wing” - Female Afghan NGO worker in Peshawar, Pakistan, June 1997.
It is in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province that many Afghans have sought refuge, predominantly in the numerous camps located throughout the province. In the dusty provincial capital of Peshawar, 35 km from the Khyber Pass and Afghanistan border, War Child UK and War Child Netherlands support Esmat Girls School through AG BAS-Ed, a local NGO. The school was established in 1993, and provides education to Afghan children whose families have fled the conflict at home.

Against a background of deeply ingrained cultural practices and, more recently, widespread political restrictions, young women have traditionally had limited access to education. Therefore a school for girls is particularly valuable for the community. A UNICEF estimate in 1997 put the Afghan adult female literacy rate at 15 percent, the fifth lowest in the world. Approximately three hundred girls currently attend the school in the afternoons, six days a week. War Child support the school by providing funding for the equipping of the classrooms and contributing towards running costs.

Field Report from PRISTINA, KOSOVO, January 1999
After witnessing the plight of refugees from Kosovo in Sarajevo, Martin Kennedy travelled on to Kosovo to investigate the worsening situation as the threat of all-out war loomed ever larger.

“The Yugoslav crisis began in Kosovo and it will end in Kosovo” is a phrase heard throughout the former Yugoslavia, and it seems to be the only point on which all parties agree.

The explosive region of Kosovo has the unenviable honour of being the scene of the most intractable of the political conflicts of the Balkans. Unlike other areas in the former Yugoslavia, the opposing groups - the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians - differ in their language, religion and culture. Such differences have served to set the groups far apart from one another, and have set the scene for war. Neither side is without blame, Serbian police brutality and ethnic cleansing being countered by guerrilla warfare by the Albanian KLA. Human rights abuses have been documented and should a full scale war erupt from the rumblings of conflict already evident, killing and destruction could be witnessed on an horrific level. Read more

'Feast for Peace in the Netherlands
We are very proud to invite you to participate in the first Feast for Peace event in the Netherlands. After the successful event in the UK last year, we are now also introducing the concept to the Netherlands.

The idea is very simple. Feast for peace is organized by everybody for everybody! The event will take place on September 22nd in a large number of restaurants around the country. The participating restaurants will contribute at least 10% of the day earnings to War Child. Feast for Peace is in that way not only a way to contribute to the aid projects of War Child, but also a way to enlarge the common appeal for War Child's Aims. The concept is that it doesn't take a lot of effort to be able to participate in the event, because restaurants will be able to run a normal evening. Of course War Child will support the organisation where possible by means of promotional materials.

For more information about Feast for Peace in the Netherlands .

Go to Feast for Peace web site www.feastforpeace.org

Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar online

The Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina has opened its website. You will find loads of information about its background, the staff and the projects. There's information about upcoming concerts and events in the Centre, interesting articles, press kits to download, the reconstruction of the building and how to be able to record in the high tech Neretva Recording Studios.

Record in the Pavarotti Music Centre Studios

For musicians and bands:
Prices Studio: 600 DM / day (10 hours) ; extra hours at 60 DM / hour

Please contact the Pavarotti Music Centre to make reservations for use of our recording studios and/or apartments:
By email: pmc_org@cob.net.ba
By phone: 387(0) 88 552 080 (Director)
Mobile: 387 (0) 90 137 046
By fax: 387 (0) 88 552 081

War Child Amsterdam moves to new offices
(War Child NL)
Recently the Dutch branch of War Child moved to new offices at Lauriergracht 126 in Amsterdam. All the contact phone numbers, e-mail and P.O.Box for War Child Netherlands remain the same! We would like to thank the many individuals and companies that helped us move at minimum costs. We would specifically like to thank Siemens Nederland for donating the entire telephone systems for the office. We would also like to thank AdVisie for computer installation and maintenance; Geert-Jan Beckman for all his endless support; Compaq for the new computers, Spekking Elektrotechniek for donating and installing all the electrical and network wiring in the office. 

Marco Borsato new Patron of War Child
(War Child NL)
Dutch top artist Marco Borsato has recently become patron of War Child in the Netherlands. Borsato has launched an awareness campaign in aid of War Child, including a special benefit concert in Utrecht in October 1998, only for children from 6 to 12 years old. The concert was an immediate sell out and became a huge success. “Through my role as Patron of War Child I have learned that the power of music can be used as a healing force for children in war zones’

In December 1998 Marco also released as very special song written for War Child called ‘de Speeltuin’ (the Playground). In co-operation with War Child an awareness video about the plight of children in warzones was made to accompany the song. This special awareness film will be broadcasted on all national television stations and in all National cinema’s in the Netherlands from December 11 onwards. The official release of the War Child video will take place on Friday December 11 at 7.00p.m. on The Music Factory (TMF).

For more information on Marco Borsato and War Child, please check the new War Child Netherlands web-site at www.warchild.nl. Or call War Child Netherlands call
+31 (0)20 - 422 77 77

Junilee 2000 - cancel the debt
The issue of international debt hit the headlines in the wake of Hurricane Mitch. It is tragic that it has taken a natural catastrophe to bring this man-made disaster, which has ravaged impoverished countries for over twenty years, to wider attention. Nicaragua and Honduras, both of which were badly hit by Mitch, pay out £1.3 million in debt payments everyday, draining their social security, health and education budgets and increasing the social tensions that may lead to war.

War Child is member of the Jubilee 2000 Coalition, an international campaign to cancel unpayable debt as a gesture for the new millennium. Many of the most impoverished countries across the world are burdened with a debt, the result of reckless lending and borrowing, that can never be repaid. It is intolerable that highly indebted countries worldwide pay £9 in debt service for every £1 they receive in aid.

Jubilee 2000’s Global Chain Reaction hopes to persuade the world's leaders to turn their words of support and sympathy into action. Worldwide events will be organised to draw attention to the problem of unpayable debt.

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-WAR CHILD NEWS FLASH 1998-