18 October 2005

Kiwis get stuck in, in Mansehra

Two Kiwi aid workers are working side by side in Mansehra, in the mountainous region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and a third is due to join them on Saturday [October 22].

Judy Moore, relief manager for World Vision, has procured an old flour mill for a warehouse and has overseen the offloading of 20 truckloads of relief goods, with another ten waiting. Stephen Hooper, Capacity Development Manager, is flying in by helicopter from Islamabad in a few hours, where he has been conducting assessments and locating sites for Child Friendly Spaces. Stephen has been working in the Middle East as a conflict mediator for World Vision since July 2004.

"On Thursday, when I have some staff in place to manage the warehouse, I'll be heading up into the mountains to do assessments," says Judy on the phone just minutes ago. "We're not sure how we'll be travelling yet – we've got some 4WDs, but it may be horse or walking."

Heather MacLeod, international child protection expert, and a former NZ nurse, is due to arrive in Mansehra on Saturday October 22. Heather first started working for World Vision in the early 1990s, starting in Romania. Other assignments include Rwanda after the genocide, Sudan, Chad, Iraq and post-tsunami Asia.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On The Government's Assault On Maori

This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Audrey Young in the NZ Herald has compiled a useful list of the many ways Christopher Luxon plans to roll back the progress made in race relations over the past forty years. He has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. More