24 February 2011

Lions Club members in New Zealand and around the world are donating money to the disaster relief for Christchurch earthquake victims, with more than $50,000 in cash already given to the Salvation Army and City Mission to help feed displaced people.

Lions Clubs international president Sid L Scruggs III, who is in New Zealand on a scheduled visit from North Carolina, kick started the appeal with $13,500 and the local Canterbury Lions have made grants of $40,000 cash for food, to be distributed from the Civil Defence welfare centres that have been set-up around the city.

A New Zealand-wide appeal will ask the 11,500 Lions club members to make donations direct to the Lions District 202E Emergency Relief Fund.

With clean drinking water a huge priority, Canterbury Lions have located and purchased a bulk supply of bottled water and will continue to distribute it throughout the city and suburbs until the situation stabilises.

An internet-based, world-wide appeal for money to help the Canterbury earthquake victims has been launched by the international service organisation to its 1.3 million Lions Club members in more than 200 countries.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On Failures Of Care For Those With Mental Disabilities

Hard to imagine a more disturbing insight into the treatment of the vulnerable than the Health Ministry report on Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau. The Ministry has found that the country’s only kaupapa Maori intellectual disability residential care provider has been “seriously dysfunctional.”

The ministry says the business has failed to recruit and retain quality staff – and says the kaimahi (caregivers) that have been employed are seriously unsuitable for the job, lacking basic knowledge. But Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau doesn’t get all the blame. The report says there’s a significant gap under disability laws to ensure there’s oversight by qualified clinical professionals. More>>