For Immediate Release February 2, 2006

For More Information Contact: Sarah Younker-Koeppel, 317-274-6500

Donations Pour in for Overseas Clinic, Funds Needed for Shipping

INDIANAPOLIS – Thanks to donations from 13 Indiana communities, Indiana Reading Corps recently collected approximately 700 pounds of supplies for the hundreds of displaced children and patients – refugees and tsunami victims – at a Thailand clinic.

Now the IRC needs sponsors to help send the supplies overseas to the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, a project that could cost hundreds of dollars.

As part of a community service project, 19 AmeriCorps members serving in Indiana Campus Compact's IRC program last month assembled the donated supplies into 43 boxes of care packages. Supplies ranged from crayons to books, surgical masks and canned soup.

“It was great to do some type of service outside of our normal IRC parameters. I think it's important that we remember our obligation to serve in multiple capacities – outside our program, outside our jobs, outside our country,” said Katie Clark, an IRC member serving at Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis Center for Service Learning.

Mae Tao Clinic, located near the Burmese border, provides reproductive health care, family planning, in-patient and out-patient departments, malaria research and disease prevention, mainly for HIV/AIDS. The clinic is staffed mainly by volunteers with the occasional U.S. physicians spending a few weeks to a month in residence.

The community service project is the brain child of Indiana Purdue University Fort Wayne IRC member, Kyaw Soe, who moved to the United States from Burma in 1993. All 16 IRC sites at university campuses, elementary schools, and community and faith-based organizations across Indiana participated.

Individuals interested in sponsoring shipping costs, should contact Sarah Younker-Koeppel at (317) 274-6500, or visit the Web site www.indianacampuscompact.org.

Visit www.burmaborderprojects.org/clinic.html for additional information about the Mae Tao Clinic.

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