Red Cross Relief Supplies To Niue
New Zealand Red Cross is planning to send approximately $14,000 of emergency relief supplies to cyclone-ravaged Niue
this evening.
NZRC Director General, Flora Gilkison, says 100 ‘family kits’ are being sent for those people that have lost their homes
on the island. Each kit contains blankets, towels, clothing, matches, soap, mosquito coils, first aid kit and camphor
wrapped in plastic and then taped and strapped closed. The Red Cross prepares the kits in advance of the cyclone season,
and stores them in strategic locations throughout the Pacific for quick distribution.
In addition, a mix of adult and children’s clothes for the estimated 200 people without homes on Niue are also being
sent up, after being sorted and put together by Red Cross staff and volunteers in Auckland today. The clothes are all
new and are stored in locations throughout New Zealand as part of NZRC emergency management stocks.
A NZRC delegate, Douglas Clark, arrived on Niue on January 8th to assist with the assessment of needs for the island,
and will co-ordinate the distribution of the items on arrival.
Mrs Gilkison says the items are intended to meet immediate shelter and hygiene needs for the worst-affected people on
the island. “As reports on the scale of the damage come through, the Red Cross remains prepared to assist in whatever
other ways we can to meet the needs of affected Niueans,” she says.