|
WORLD VISION MOBILISES RAPID RELIEF TEAM
WORLD VISION AUSTRALIA PRESS RELEASE
Following the decision last night by the Indonesian Government to allow a UN peace-keeping force into East Timor, World Vision is mobilising to have a relief team en route to Dili as soon as the deployment of the force is underway and security established.
The manager of World Vision Australia’s Emergency Relief Unit, Dan Kelly, says the agency is well placed to be distributing food-aid in Dili within a couple of days.
“There is currently a freighter ship with a cargo of 1400 tonnes of rice supplied by the UN World Food Program waiting to enter Dili Harbour.
“World Vision is one of four aid agencies chosen by the World Food Program to distribute the rice when it is unloaded in Dili.”
The World Vision relief team, which will be made up of commodities, logistics, health, administration and communications experts, will undertake a rapid assessment of the conditions in Dili and its environs.
“Food aid will be distributed during the phase of the initial assessment with the program expanding within ten days to supplying non-food relief items like blankets, jerry cans, cooking pots, eating utensils, shelter materials and mosquito nets,” says Mr Kelly.
“We are looking at supplying enough of these items to provide for 5000 families, or a total of 25,000 beneficiaries.”
The procurement of relief supplies is currently underway in Darwin, and World Vision is appealing to the public for donations to help fund its relief program for East Timor.
END
|