18 June 2007

New Zealand Red Cross and New Zealand Government provide support for Iraq

New Zealand Red Cross has welcomed the New Zealand Government’s support to assist victims of conflict in Iraq as the humanitarian crisis in the country deepens.

New Zealand Red Cross will facilitate the transfer of $700,000 of funding from government aid agency NZAID through to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In May this year the International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC) appealed for extra funding for their operations in supporting and assisting the people of Iraq as armed conflict in the country increases.

In addition to the distribution of relief aid, the extra funding will allow the ICRC to increase its supply of urgently needed medical supplies along with equipment and surgical instruments to hospitals. Five mobile clinics will also be established to provide treatment to those unable to reach medical care.

Currently the ICRC is supplying emergency aid for over 60,000 people each month and in the past year has delivered medical supplies sufficient to treat 3,000 war-wounded patients to hospitals across Iraq.

While New Zealand Red Cross does not currently have any aid workers deployed to Iraq it does support 30 aid workers in 15 other countries using their specialist knowledge to help improve the lives of thousands of vulnerable people.

ENDS

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