NDMO Director Praises UNDAC Team

NDMO Director Praises UNDAC Team

By Julian Makaa

Members of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team sent by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, OCHA, to help Solomon Islands in coordinating different activities following the earthquake and tsunami disasters in the Western and Choiseul Provinces left the country on Tuesday afternoon.

In a brief farewell for the team Wednesday afternoon at the National Disaster Management Office, NDMO Director Loti Yates said without the team's support the work of coordinating and collating information about relief supplies, logistics and so forth would not have been cohesive.

Mr. Yates said NDC appreciated so much their support and contributions and assured them the knowledge they had imparted to the various local people who are still working now will go a long way into the future.

“If another disaster strikes in any part of the country, I am sure our own people can capably carry out their tasks confidently and diligently after they have learnt so much from you ,” Yates told the UNDAC departing team.

Yates said his thanks to the team were on behalf of the people of Western and Choiseul Provinces, members of the National Disaster Council and the government.

In response, team leader Joanne Laurens said her team had been very impressed with the way the operations had been well handled.

“I have worked in many countries before but have never seen the level of commitment and seriousness that you have all made, despite the long hours you had to spend to do the work properly,” Joanne Laurens said.

The members of the UNDAC team were Joanne Laurence (team leader), Antonio Massella who already left for Papua New Guinea on 16th April, Peter Muller who left for Fiji on 17 April, Simon Genin and Siri Ounechay, Mathieu Frappier of Telecoms Sans Frontier, TSF; Winston Chang, Sarah Stuart-Black from New Zealand and Brett Cowcher from Australia.

Meanwhile, Adriana Carvalho-Friedheim from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, OCHA, based in Fiji arrived on Tuesday this week to see the transition period between the relief to recovery and rebuilding phases of the disaster.

The UNDAC had already provided a full briefing and handover to Ms Carvalho-Friedheim before it departed.

Another OCHA officer Charles Bernimolin, arrived yesterday to support Ms Carvalho-Friedheim in providing assistance to the NDMO and UNDP in the transitional period.

ENDS

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