Australia and its partners in Solomon Islands are getting aid to where it’s needed now.

That was the take-home message from Australian High Commissioner Dr Lachlan Strahan’s discussion with partners from the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), Oxfam and CARE Australia/Live and Learn on Wednesday 22 April.

The group met to discuss their work together to assist the communities hit by Tropical Cyclone Harold, and their collaboration to help communities prepare for COVID-19.

On 10 April Australia mobilised 4 tonnes of humanitarian supplies from our Brisbane humanitarian warehouse to assist with COVID-19 preparedness and TC Harold response efforts. Australia’s humanitarian warehouse has the largest stockpile of prepositioned humanitarian emergency relief supplies within the Pacific region, which ensures supplies can be mobilised to our Pacific family quickly in times of need.

The mobilised supplies include 450 kitchen kits. Oxfam and the NDMO are distributing these as part of the Cyclone Harold response. The kits are going to affected communities in western Guadalcanal initially, and include pots, pans, bowls and cutlery to help families that were impacted by TC Harold. We will continue to work with the NDMO to ensure supplies reach communities in need.

The supplies also include 150 hygiene kits, which Live and Learn and the NDMO are distributing in Honiara to boost community preparedness for COVID-19. The kits include buckets, water purification tablets, antibacterial soap and detergent. High Commissioner Dr Lachie Strahan said Australia was proud to support the NGOs and that it was wonderful to see the effects of their hard work.

“Our partners are doing critical work and we rely heavily on them to get our supplies to where they are most needed,” he said. “I was delighted to hear that the help is getting through to the communities that need it.”

Australia has also provided 1 million SBD (AUD200,000) through the Australian Humanitarian Partnership to Oxfam, World Vision, Care/Live & Learn, the CAN DO network and Plan International Australia to assist with health and hygiene promotion, community messaging and coordination of COVID-19 preparedness activities across Solomon Islands.

Source: Press Release