PEOPLE'S TEMPLE TAKES TO THE AIR
Reverend Jim Jones, at the People's Temple Agricultural Project in Guyana, South America, has initiated a remarkable new project using the temple's ham radio. In just the last few weeks Rev. Jones and a crew of experienced radio operators have made more than 2,000 contacts of friendship and goodwill, to ham radio operators throughout the United States and in other countries.
The purpose of the contacts is to strengthen friendly ties between the United States and Guyana and support Carter's administration in furnishing needed economic assistance to this newly emerged nation, which is a leader in the Caribbean area of the hemisphere.
Jones has spearheaded this new effort with great energy and persistence. "Radio operators can make wonderful ambassadors." he notes, and "the response has been amazing". The temple has been deeply gratified to find a widespread understanding of the need for nonintervention, mutual coexistence, and aid to America's neighbors to the south."
The agricultural project was begun four years ago, for the joint purpose of providing a wholesome alternative lifestyle for troubled young persons and to produce food and agricultural technology that can help solve world food problems. The radio is being used extensively as an extension of these humanitarian efforts. Many times the temple has been able to relay requests for medical assistance and other needed help.
One situation involved a child in a neighboring country who was critically ill and needed a medication that could not be obtained there. Rev. Jones had hundreds of contacts made over the radio, over an area ranging thousands of miles, until the rare medication could be located.
Another remarkable set of contacts involved the delivery of a baby in Jonestown by the doctor there. The baby was a breech birth, and the mother was hemorrhaging. Eleven doctors were called in for consultation over the radio. The medical complications were handled in an expert manner, and both mother and child are doing very well.
Copies of radio identification numbers the temple has contacted from its Guyanese station are being forwarded to President Carter and many U.S. congressional representatives. The temple is proud to do its part in furthering goodwill for the United States in this part of the world. It has made known its support for the Guyanese policy of nonalignment.
Dr. Albert Greenfield helped deliver twins by Caesarean section this week, although the patient was more than 2000 miles away in a village in the jungles of Guyana.
Greenfield, an obstetrician, was at home in suburban Bethesda, Md., on Monday night when a neighbor, who is a ham radio operator, said a doctor at the Mission Village clinic in Guyana needed help because a storm prevented the woman from being flown to a hospital. The two doctors began the long-distance consultation. Greenfield said the next day he was told the mother and babies were doing well.
Associated Press