Meetings Scheduled on Hurricane Relief
March 25, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
The U.S. Department of State plans to make charity efforts to help Central America recover from Hurricane Mitch a key discussion item in town meetings being held nationwide this year.
State Department officials said that thus far, they are working with four non-profit organizations that deal with Central American relief.
Other non-profit organizations that work on reconstruction and relief efforts are also invited to participate.
A total of 18 cities have been selected so far as sites for meetings to discuss the hurricane-relief and recovery efforts, with the first meeting scheduled for March 26 in New Orleans and the last two in late May in New Haven, Conn., and Rochester, N.Y.
The cities were selected based on their large Central American populations and because they are areas that have been “very forthcoming in supporting relief efforts,” said Olive Sampson, director of the State Department’s Public Liaison Office.
“We want to insure that the Central American community is familiar with what is going on in terms of the reconstruction efforts,” Ms. Sampson said, “and that the American public understands that it’s not just the federal government, but the NGO [non-governmental organization] community working in Central America.”
For more information, contact Office of Public Liaison, U.S. Department of State, PA/PIL, 2201 C Street, N.W., Washington 20520; (202) 647-5171.
The following are the cities that have been selected:
Brownsville, Tex.
Chicago
Fort Wayne, Ind.
Los Angeles
Louisville, Ky.
New Haven, Conn.
New Orleans
New York
Oakland, Cal.
Riverside, Cal.
Rochester, N.Y.
San Antonio
San Francisco
Santa Monica, Cal.
Seattle
Tacoma, Wash.
Toledo, Ohio
Washington
