posted April 09, 2003 at 9:47 a.m. MDTAid groups in Portland Oregon get U.S. go-ahead Portland's international relief organizations, bolstered by U.S. government clearance and financing, are poised to launch large-scale operations in Iraq.
Mercy Corps, which on Monday announced receiving a $5 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development, is starting to hire more than 130 workers to provide humanitarian assistance throughout Iraq. The organization is prepared to raise as much as $20 million to meet the needs of as many as 700,000 people.
"The United States is now saying that Iraq is no longer off-limits" to relief and development organizations, says Barbara Agnew, Northwest Medical Teams spokeswoman. "Now if we can just get in through Turkey, we'll be even happier."
