NZ Nurse En Route To Solomons

World Vision's first shipment of relief supplies is leaving Honiara on a Government ship today, following an assessment team's flight into Gizo this morning.

The Western Provincial Government has declared Gizo and Simbo disaster areas.

New Zealand nurse Joy Miller, who leaves for Gizo on Friday, is no stranger to the kind of devastation that will greet her in the Solomon Islands. Joy volunteered with World Vision in Papua New Guinea after the 1998 tsunami, giving orthopaedic care and wound treatment to survivors. The 61-year-old also worked in Cambodian refugee camps with World Vision in Thailand in the early 80s.

"I anticipate working among the displaced people and I expect they will need advice on hygiene set up and immunisations," she says.

She hopes to acquire supplies, including gauze swabs and dressings, before she leaves New Zealand, from medical suppliers who have donated materials previously. "I have heard that basic supplies have run out already," she says.

The hospital at Gizo has been damaged and a temporary hospital has been set up on higher ground with patients under temporary tarpaulins, report staff on the ground in Gizo.

World Vision is accepting donations on 0800 80 2000 or through the website: www.worldvision.org.nz
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