c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and the publisher of Religion News Service. As a member of the board of the international relief agency World Vision, she recently traveled to the former Yugoslavia.)

(RNS)-When I was a little girl, my mother urged me to eat everything on my plate because”children are starving in China.” One morning I spied an envelope on the table, scooped my leftover scrambled eggs into it and presented it to my mother. She was not amused.

Little did she realize that I was ahead of a trend that has changed the way many organizations in developed countries provide assistance to the needy of the world.”Gifts-in-kind”are one of the primary ways many relief organizations transform the leftovers of one society into basic sustenance for others.

Most gifts-in-kind are simply the remainders, seconds and unsold goods from U.S. corporations that are donated to nonprofit agencies to be used overseas. Field staff of the agencies identify needs in the recipient country, and then a team coordinates goods received with those needed. Corporations receive a tax credit for what they donate.

In a country like Bosnia, where the people were used to living a developed lifestyle before the war, gifts-in-kind can not only bring relief but also restore some sense of dignity in an otherwise dismal situation.

When dozens of private relief organizations gathered this week at the White House to be recognized for their efforts in Bosnia, they pledged millions of dollars of continuing aid. But the dollars don’t always go into Bosnia in cash. In fact, many of the organizations supply the majority of their contributions in goods donated by U.S. firms.”Of the 158 member agencies, 40 use material goods as a significant part of their donations,”says Julia Taft, president of InterAction, a coalition of humanitarian organizations that subscribe to ethical and practical standards of accountability.”In 1993 alone, more than $400 million worth of goods were distributed throughout the world by our member organizations.” In many countries, these goods may never have been used. But in the former Yugoslavia, they are, for the most part, products no longer available because of the war. If used properly, they will provide short-term relief until the economy can begin to recover.

One of Interaction’s members, MAP International of Brunswick, Ga., is a relief organization working primarily on health issues. With most of MAP’s contributions coming in the form of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, it provides a vital service in both rural clinics and city hospitals of needy nations.

In Bosnia I saw MAP supplies being delivered to a bombed-out shell of a hospital. Surgical gloves, pain relievers and other goods allowed doctors and nurses to keep operating in the basement while shells fell around them.

In the World Vision warehouse in Zenica, Bosnia, which I visited as a board representative of the organization, I saw another example of surplus U.S. products providing needed relief. Boxes of last season’s Liz Claiborne coats were being unloaded for distribution to refugees. When I questioned the appropriateness of distributing such fashionable coats in the midst of a war- torn country, Seida Tomasevic, a Croatian working for the organization, set me straight.”These coats will keep women warm, but they will do more. They will help them feel pretty. For some women, the psychological boost will be more important than the physical comfort,”she said.

Because of its prewar sophistication, Bosnia represents a unique opportunity-and challenge-for the appropriate usage of gifts-in-kind. With the Dayton peace accord comes the reopening of airports and ports,enabling raw materials to be shipped into the country. For the country to survive, it must be able to sustain its economy.

A long-term flood of American-made goods could stifle economic recovery in the former Yugoslavia. But to withhold goods until factories are fully functional would prevent suffering people from receiving the help they so desperately need.

That is why relief workers who handed out coats recently in Bosnia also placed a small order-accompanied by a cash deposit-for additional coats with a Bosnian factory. The relief workers thereby created some working capital to help the factory get off the ground.

In a land of surplus it is hard to imagine the value of our excess goods. But in Bosnia and other needy nations, the appropriate use of gifts-in-kind represents a very tangible bridge between the haves and have nots of the world.

MJP END BOURKE