Arawa Health Centre receives donation from Australia

All,

Every day someone from our network is doing good around the needs of our very special Bougainville - based friends. With the war`s 10,000 + casualties there is no need to dwell on the measurement and volume of this need. Having spent 361 days serving on the front line in a theatre of war I have some inkling as to their suffering.  I am astounded that, as individuals and given the dearth of their personal possessions, the Bougainville people are, so quickly, coming to terms with their dreadful losses. There is tremendous optimism across the region.  While we should always push back to encourage the people to do more for themselves, we also must be there to offer assistance when life becomes completely impossible.  At some of the remote medical and education centres in Central and Southern Bougainville the term, “impossible” hardly seems adequate to describe their difficulties and their shortages.

A couple of those “someones” are Keith and Carole Sherwood. They have gathered surplus medical stores from the Maleny Soldiers Memorial Hospital and other Sunshine Coast medical facilities, see attached. Their second batch of goodies has just been dropped at the Rotary, Donations in Kind store, in Durack. We are hopeful that, within a few weeks, they will be packed out by Veronica and her BBCG (Brisbane Bougainville Community Group) and then the Rotary Clubs of Bribie Island and Pine Rivers will complete the documentation. George (former DG) and Mary Grant, from Bribie have made a huge contribution to these works.

We are marvelling at our good fortune in finding that the son of Keith and Carol, Scott Sherwood is employed at the St Andrews hospital in Brisbane. Scott has also commenced the gathering of medical materials for this wonderful cause.

The material sitting on the table, see below, is some of the first batch of materials delivered by Keith. Prior to shipment they were closely examined by our Brisbane in-house medical authority, Joan Daniels. Joan liaises closely with Ann Green and others from the Bougainville medical fraternity.  With some of our clients Veronica has become the main point of contact.  It is of critical importance that no material reaches our containers that cannot be readily utilized at our hospitals and clinics.

We thank the Editor of Bougainville 24, Ben Jackson for his article (see below) .  This sort of publicity is of invaluable assistance to us as we spread the word.

Regards

Davo

john@johndavidson.com.au
0418 784 186 

Arawa Health Centre receives donation from Australia 

As Bougainville continues to rebuild, the Arawa District Health Centre has been fortunate to receive a donation from a Rotary group from Brisbane, Australia.

The delivery included children’s toys and dolls, hospital beds, bed sheets, pillow cases and first aid kits.

The donation from Brisbane was arranged by an Australian friend, Mr John Davidson, and reached the shores of Bougainville. During his follow-up visit to Arawa at the start of May he was warmly welcomed by the Health Centre staff.

While Speaking to a group of staff Mr Davidson stated that all the new additions Centre’s itinerary came with the support of the Sunshine Coast Hospital and the Bougainville community in Brisbane.

He said that getting all the items together and bringing them to Bougainville a challenging task but was made easier with the help of Rotary.

Senior Medical Officer, Dr Joe Vilosi, gratefully thanked Mr John Davidson for his effective arrangement skills.

Dr Vilosi further stated that there is a need to identify what the hospital really needs.

He also thanked the Sunshine Coast Hospital in Australia for the donation.

Source : http://www.bougainville24.com/bougainville-aid/arawa-health-centre-receives-donation-from-australia/