Red Cross Sends Nurse to Pakistan Floods

Red Cross Sends Nurse to Pakistan Floods

Auckland nurse Judy Owen is packing her bags for a three-month Red Cross mission in Pakistan.

The Red Cross veteran, who first worked for the organisation 30 years ago, is set to leave on 7 September and be based in Lahore in an International Committee of the Red Cross team.

In her luggage will be movies and music, an iPod loaded with everything except rap and country music, Stieg Larsson novels and a wardrobe of long, loose cotton clothes.

Normally based at Auckland hospital, this will be Ms Owen’s first time back in Pakistan since 1985 when she helped set up a field hospital with four other New Zealand Red Cross nurses.

Ms Owen says her years of experience will help her prioritise and kick-start programmes. “Everything’s been destroyed. There’s no infrastructure. So I imagine the emphasis will be public health care and then mobile health teams, setting up new structures and vaccinations.”

The Pakistan mission will be Ms Owen’s second to a country hit by both conflict and disaster. After the Indian Ocean tsunami, she was posted to the Indonesian province of Aceh.

Although conditions will be tough, Ms Owen says, “I’ve been doing this work for a long time. It’s a professional interest. I am going because hopefully I can make a difference out there. I enjoy it once I get there and become part of the team.”

Her experience helps her hit the ground running. “Hopefully my experience, life skills and adaptability will help me in the team,” says Ms Owen, who was born and raised in Whanganui.

Last year, in Afghanistan, security forced her Red Cross team to be confined to their compound outside working hours for three weeks. To cope, the team watched a lot of movies and used a small gym, she says.

New Zealand Red Cross has so far raised $462,000 for the Red Cross Pakistan Monsoon Floods Appeal, which aims to give aid to up to 2 million people for 18 months.

What donations can buy: kitchen set $40; hygiene kit $20; tarpaulin $20; family tent $330; shelter kit with tools $33; water container $5; blanket $13.

New Zealand Red Cross is calling on Kiwis to give generously in one of the following ways:
• Phone 0900 31 100 to make a $20 donation
• Make a secure online donation at www.redcross.org.nz
• At any ANZ or ASB bank

New Zealand Red Cross urges supporters to donate cash, not goods, so that the right relief items can be sent to people in need as quickly as possible.

ENDS

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