Heal

Creati

Photographer
Stephen Epstein
captures work
of Jewish groups
in Rwanda.

TH E D E TR O I T J E W I S H N E W S

STEPHEN EPSTEIN
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

68

n Rosh Hashanah will
be inscribed how
many will pass from
the earth and how
many will be created;
who will live and who
will die... who by
sword, who by beast...
who by famine, who
by thirst."
The words stuck in
my mind on the eve of
Rosh Hashanah as I
left the Rwandan
refugee camps where
people were just start-
ing to recover from the
horrors of civil war
and the ravages of dis-
ease.
We have been try-
ing to educate our
children and the rest
of the world that a
holocaust should nev-
er happen again. We
say "never again" with
such determination,
yet barely five months
ago between 500,000
and a million people
were put to death. The
Jewish people, who
have learned the les-
son of the Holocaust, responded immediately. The two important
players in the relief effort were Jewish. The Israeli Defense Force
was sent to open a hospital outside of Goma.They were there dur-
ing the crisis and cholera epidemic and returned to Israel just be-
fore Rosh Hashanah. They saved many lives and brought hope to
thousands of refugees.
Another Jewish presence in the camps other than individuals was
the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. All the aid
groups worked to alleviate the situation for more than 1 million

Assefa Shumie
working for the
American Jewish
Joint Distribution
Committee in the
Rwandan refugee
camps near Goma,
Zaire, weighs a
child. Shumie, a
nurse from Ethiopia,
started an infant
feeding program for
malnourished
babies.

Rwandan refugees
who fled to Goma, but
a combined effort of
the JDC and the In-
ternational Rescue
Committee achieved a
minor miracle in a
place where tragedy is
commonplace. They
were so successful
with their work that
the sector for which
they are responsible
had a mortality rate of
one-third of the rest of
the camps. With 500
people dying each
week, this lower death
rate in the JDC/IRC
area stands out and
begs for an explana-
tion.
The United Nations
High Commissioner
for Refugees divided
the camps of Kibum-
ba, Magunga and Ki-
tale into sections. Aid
groups were assigned
different sectors to pro-
vide medical care and
sanitation services to
the residents. The
JDC/IRC team mobi-
lized quickly, analyzed and needs and problems involved and came
up with solutions that made a difference. Most Western physicians
and nurses have had no experience in Africa and have never worked
with tropical diseases or epidemics of diarrhea. It takes several
weeks to get enough experience to be effective.
Dr. Rick Hodes, an American physician working for the JDC in
Addis Ababa, was sent to Goma together with a group of Ethiopian
health-care professionals. "Our team of Ethiopian doctors and a
nurse have had years of experience which directly applies here; they