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Paying Tribute To Red Cross Aid Workers

NEWS RELEASE

17 August 2009

Paying Tribute To Red Cross Aid Workers On World Humanitarian Day

Every day of the year, New Zealand Red Cross international humanitarian aid workers are making a difference to the lives of vulnerable people across the globe.

Wednesday 19 August is World Humanitarian Day, selected to honour all humanitarian aid workers. In recognition, New Zealand Red Cross pays tribute to its 44 humanitarian aid workers who have undertaken 55 international missions in the past 12 months.

It is also the day to reflect on those who have lost their lives in the field while working with New Zealand Red Cross. Over the 49 years of New Zealand Red Cross’ international humanitarian aid worker programme, three aid workers have lost their lives while on mission. Mac Riding was killed in a plane crash while on mission in Vietnam in 1975, in 1992 Dr Jock Sutherland was shot while on mission in Pakistan, and nurse Sheryl Thayer was murdered in Chechnya in 1996 along with five other Red Cross aid workers.

New Zealand Red Cross sent the first international humanitarian aid worker to Morocco in 1960, and today supports 26 aid workers in Afghanistan, DPR Korea, Iraq, the Maldives, Yemen, Cambodia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sudan, South Ossetia, Timor Leste, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates

Red Cross aid workers are making a difference to those who need it most by using their specialist skills in health, water and sanitation, security, logistics and administration. New Zealand Red Cross maintains a pool of trained personnel ready to travel around the globe at short notice should they be required to respond.

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Internationally, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement assists more than 200 million vulnerable people in nearly 190 countries every year.

In the Maldives, Kiwi Kevin Duignan has overseen the rebuilding of a community with new homes, schools and infrastructure in the wake of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. In South Ossetia nurse Joyce Hood is delivering medical care and support to the homes of those who have been left isolated and alone by the conflict that plagued the country last year and in Cambodia, water and sanitation specialist Jane Edgar is supporting programmes that deliver clean and safe drinking water to communities in need.

New Zealand Red Cross’ international aid worker programme is generously supporter by public donations and NZAID, the government’s international aid agency.

Ends

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