Medical equipment shipped to islands

Sydney
10 August 2003

Catholic MPs told to oppose same-sex ‘marriage’ moves

Medical equipment shipped to islands

Honour a ‘bolt from the blue’

Blessing for the infertile

Your gifts send Susan to Lourdes

Landmark dates for Fr Joe, escapee

Bishops applaud refugee move

Liberal arts focus at Campion College

Faith, ecology network

Editorial: Tale of a tiger

Letters: Move the world?

Vocation Awareness Special: Are you doing what God’s calling you to?

Living ‘in the spirit of Mary’

Mercy at the heart of a vocation

Marie’s Song of Mercy

Children of the rock - John Paul II

Kim received faith ‘through God’s words’

People you meet are the ‘best thing’ for a priest

Divisions cast aside

Voice of youth: Downside to benefits of plurality

Tribute to the man in the bus shelter

Medical equipment shipped to islands

By Chris Lindsay

Catholic Mission is helping reestablish the services and infrastructure required to rebuild the Solomon Islands, including a much needed hospital in the north.

Last year Catholic Mission provided more than $500,000 to the Solomon Islands to help communities by training and paying local teachers, repairing accommodation, building community centres, providing teaching materials, books, stationery and transport, and reconstructing education facilities.

The national director, Fr Terry Bell, says Catholic Mission has a history of decades of service to the economically shattered country, trying to promote and support actions of mission, justice and peace.

Australian troops and police are in the Solomons to restore peace, rebuild the government and rid the country of corruption.

Catholic Mission, particularly in the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, is actively supporting an Australian doctor, Dr Chris Millar, at Taro in the north of the island group.

As a result, Dr Millar was able to take three shipping containers of donated medical supplies and equipment, as well as books, manual sewing machines, clothing, items for the Mercy nuns and even a fibreglass hull for him to transport his mobile clinic to the local island communities.

Also included were 27 quilts made by the Newcastle ladies craft group for the five Mercy nuns and 22 girls under their care.

The older-style sewing machines collected will provide a local village with a means to make garments for sale to supplement family incomes.

A hospital is being built to house and utilise the medical equipment and provide medical services to around 20,000 people that were previously only available in Gizo or Honiara, which are several hours away by boat.

The project received a boost with an offer of 22 hospital beds from Lake Macquarie Private Hospital, which were shipped to the islands by the Army’s 26 Transport Squadron.