Pacific Stars &
Stripes, Dec. 4, 1953
PUSAN, Korea, Dec. 4- More than 200 orphans, left
homeless and destitute by last week's fire in Pusan, are receiving
emergency food, shelter, clothing and medical attention today as part
of the U.S. 24th Division's Operation Haven, div. Hq. announced.
Present facilities are only temporary, a division
spokesman explained, pending the completion of a six quonset-unit
orphan village now under construction on the northern edge of the
Korean port city. The village is slated for completion in ten days.
A majority of the children now being cared for
came from the Kyung-nam Orphanage which has been receiving support
from the division since early July. Plans have been made to build
a new home for the children even before the fire leveled their former
quarters.
Meanwhile, the Kyung-nam children, augmented by
about 100 more orphans found huddled in dockside warehouses, are comfortable
and happy in a camp loaned them by the 24th Div. Sleeping on mattresses
with plenty of blankets in a heated quonset hut and eating well-prepared
food has had its effect on the little waifs. There is no serious illness.
Extra needs, not able to be met from division or
civil facilities are being provided for by a collection taken up from
the men in the pay line Wednesday. Capt. Carlton F. McMillan, division
Civil Affairs officer, who set up the temporary camp site within 24
hours of the fire, said that men of the 24th Div. "opened their
hearts and their pocketbooks" to the fire victims.
KBS Hq. said that more than 6,000 persons have
taken advantage of these sites where the Army is serving meals of
C and K rations until the Korean Civil Assistance Command can bring
in rice and other native Korean foods.
CARE headquarters in New York announced today that
it had released $20,000 worth of food, blanket and clothing packages
to aid fire victims.
According to reports from the CARE mission chief
in Korea, the majority of more than 30,000 persons were without even
the most primitive emergency shelter and were forced to camp on the
bare ground with the meager possessions they had saved from CARE's
warehouse in Pusan which escaped unscathed.
PSS-310
