Biafra Volunteers Are Screened; UNICEF Is Not Sponsoring Trip

The first of the Boston volunteers for relief work in Nigeria and Biafra--159 of them--have begun the screening process, Phillip Whitten, chairman of the Cambridge-based Committee for Nigerian-Biafran Relief said yesterday.

Whitten's group is conducting the screening with advice from members of an international relief organization which he would not name. They are giving top priority to volunteers with medical, Peace Corps, or VISTA experience, Whitten said.

Whitten, a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said that so far 291 Boston-area residents have volunteered to fly to Biafra to help distribute food and medical care to the thousands of children suffering from protein starvation there. He estimated that 125 of the volunteers are students at Harvard--undergraduates, graduate students, and Cliffies.

Last week Whitten was in New York speaking with members of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). He hoped UNICEF would take over full sponsorship of the volunteers for Nigeria-Biafra program.

Instead, UNICEF only agreed to channel volunteers to other international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, Daniel Jacobs '49, UNICEF press officer said yesterday.

UNICEF itself "does not use volunteers in the field," Mrs. Robert Williams, Massachusetts representative to the United States Committee for UNICEF, said yesterday.

UNICEF's principal role in the current crisis, Mrs. Williams said, has been gathering and shipping food. The freighter Orient Express, hired by UNICEF left Houston for Nigeria last week, loaded with the first large shipment of food for Nigeria-Biafra--5000 tons--she said.

Whitten now things the first volunteers will fly into the famine zones in about two weeks. Last week he estimated the first flights would depart thisweek.