Speech #880118623

Thus. every dollar spent by the Government to transport these supplies is multiplied nearly twentyfold in terms of the value of goods delivered overseas to people who need our help. Let us look at some specific ways in which the voluntary agencies are helping the needy overseas and thereby strengthening our foreign aid and foreign policy. On a small island which was seriously overcrowded. the problem of assisting a great number of impoverished hungry refugees was staggering. Many of the refugees were able and eager to work but few found employment. Large numbers were helped by an imaginative. practical supplemental feeding project. made possible by an ingenious noodlemaking machine devised by voluntary agency representatives and manufactured on the Island. The noodles are made from Public Law 480 flour. cornmeal. and dried milk. Refugees in a selfhelp work project for relocated Koreans on the southwest coast of Korea had just staked out their hardwon land reclaimed from the Yellow Sea by means of a dike they had built. when a typhoon struck. The typhoon breached the dike. threatening to destroy it and to flood the precious land intended for rice planting. Instead of giving up in discouragement. the refugees worked night and day to repair the dike. Kerosenesoaked rags on the ends of sticks made flares for their allnightlong labors. With no modern earthmoving equipment available. they used picks and shovels. and carried earth to small railway cars in hods suspended from Aframes on their backs. The refugees. working without wages. were supplied through a U.S. voluntary agency with Public Law 480 cornmeal. flour. and cooking fats. in a north African country. where unemployment Is high and training facilities are meager. a voluntary agency. on the basis of a careful survey of the economic situation and the labor market. has provided vocational training for young men and boys to meet the pressing demand for auto mechanics. welders. carpenters. electricians. and for young girls to be trained in garment making. Six voluntary agencies are carrying on child feeding programs in 17 Latin American countries under the "Operation Ninos" program of the Alliance for Progress. The program is currently feeding more than 9 million Latin American children and by August 1964. an estimated 11.5 million Latin American childrenor 1 out of 3will benefit from "Operation Ninos." One voluntary agency. organized specifically to serve children. in keeping with its emphasis on working with families rather than with the one child in the family group alone. has provided. in addition to clothing and personal articles for the child. household utensils and supplies from which the childs whole family benefits.