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PROJECT HOPE

The Project HOPE Health Sciences Education Center
Millwood, Virginia 22646 (703) 837-2100

contact:
Maggie Wolff Peterson or Rebecca Davis
703-837-2100

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 18, 1989

Doles to deliver Project HOPE rehabilitation equipment to Armenia

Rehabilitation equipment for a Project HOPE program in Yerevan, Armenia, will be delivered during a trip to the earthquake-torn Soviet republic by Sen. Robert J. Dole and Secretary of Labor Elizabeth H. Dole which is beginning today.

As part of their trip, which will also include stops in Poland, Morocco and the Netherlands, Sen. Dole and Secretary Dole are bringing critical medical equipment and supplies valued at $50,000, including an electromyegram (EMG), used to measure muscle response and nerve regeneration; an icepack-hotpack machine, used in rehabilitation therapy; a personal computer for record-keeping and generating statistical information; video equipment for teaching purposes; textbooks; and orthopedic equipment, including canes, crutches and walkers.

Project HOPE, an independent, international health education foundation based in Virginia, is now engaged in an extensive follow-up to relief action taken after the Dec. 7, 1988, quake which killed 80,000 and left hundreds of thousands injured and homeless.

In February, HOPE airlifted 37 seriously injured children

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and their guardians to the United States, where they were sent to hospitals in 10 cities for treatment and rehabilitation. Now most of that group has returned home, and HOPE is helping to establish the rehabilitation centers in Yerevan that they, and thousands like them, will need in the long term. HOPE's efforts in Armenia are at the invitation of the Soviet government.

The first members of HOPE's Armenian staff left the United States for Yerevan in July. The team will assist in establishing model rehabilitation centers at the Yerevan Institute of Research and Traumatology and the Third Children's Hospital in Yerevan, as well as a regional rehabilitation center at the Republic Children's Center in Yerevan.

Project HOPE, which has agreed to work in Armenia for at least five years, has committed an initial budget of $5.3 million to the project.

President George Bush asked Senate Republican leader Dole and Secretary Dole to report back to him on their Armenian visit. The Doles are the highest-ranking delegation to visit the area since the earthquake.

During their tour of Armenia, the Doles will meet with Project HOPE officials, as well as with personnel from the American Red Cross and the Joint Jewish Distribution Committee, which are also offering relief and humanitarian assistance. As part of their visit, the Doles will meet children injured in the quake who were treated in the United States.

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Project HOPE, the primary activity of the People-To-People Health Foundation Inc., currently operates programs in 19 countries, including the United States. The foundation was established in 1958 and has offices in Washington, D.C., and headquarters in Millwood, Va.

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