Balkan Crisis: Global Leadership Initiative

April 19, 1999

Southwestern University recently has been given a $250,000 gift to launch a medical assistance effort to aid refugees in the Balkan nations of Macedonia and Albania.

The gift, made by Red and Charline McCombs of San Antonio, will provide funds to deploy physicians and other health-care personnel to Macedonia and Albania, on a short-term basis, to offer medical assistance and other relief to the half million Kosovar refugees displaced by Serbian troops from their homeland. Red and Charline McCombs hope their gift will inspire others to volunteer gifts of time and resources to this global leadership initiative.

In the spirit of its historic mission to provide leadership and service worldwide, Southwestern University is working with International Medical Corps (IMC) based in Los Angeles to develop a comprehensive medical assistance strategy. IMC is "a non-profit, humanitarian relief organization whose mission is to save lives and relieve suffering through health interventions and medical training that build local capacity and self-reliance in war-torn and impoverished regions of the world." To learn more about how IMC has been assisting in the Balkan crisis, visit www.imc-la.org/ or call (310) 826-7800.

Throughout the next several weeks, Southwestern will be working to identify and recruit medical personnel-among alumni, friends of the University, and other college and university groups-to deploy to these areas, which are in desperate need of aid. The University's initial efforts will focus upon identifying volunteers who would be willing to be deplored for a two- to three-week assignment. Travel costs for volunteers will be paid by the generous gift of Red and Charline McCombs, and the housing and food costs will be provided by IMC. In addition, knowing that many of you in the University community are concerned and have expressed your desire to assist in some meaningful way, I will ask a University advisory group to consider ways in which members of the community might be able to participate. Southwestern University will, also, seek to locate other funding sources to provide longer-term services to Kosovar refugees in line with opportunities which may be identified.

More information will be distributed as it becomes available detailing Southwestern's involvement in this global initiative. I hope you will support our community effort to lend whatever appropriate and available humanitarian relief we can to combat this crisis.

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