NATIONAL RED CROSS WEEK BEGINS TODAY

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30739, 1 May 1965, Page 16

NATIONAL RED CROSS WEEK BEGINS TODAY

The first National Red Cross week in New Zealand begins today. It replaces Red Cross Day which has been observed in the past. Throughout the country the Red Cross Society will place before the public the aims of Red Cross in regard to International Co-operation Year, which is being sponsored by the United Nations.

Five major projects designed to alleviate sickness and suffering in places ranging from South Korea to Singapore are to be carried out by the society this year. These projects vary from a £14,000 contribution to a children’s hospital in South Korea to a scholarship for nurses from South-east Asia. As a result of an appeal from the National Red Cross of the Republic of Korea, the society has agreed to contribute £14,000 towards the erection of an addition to a children’s tuberculosis sanatorium at Inchon, South Korea. The cost of the new block will be about £33,000. The services of a physiotherapist for the Red Cross Crippled Children’s Home in Singapore is to be provided by the society for two years. The home, the only one of its kind in Singapore, takes up

to 40 crippled children, aged from three to 14 years. A £4OOO grant from the society has enabled a hospital school to be opened at a convalescent home situated on the island of Cheung Chau,, Hong Kong. The home caters mainly for young tuberculosis sufferers from the overcrowded areas of the colony. The grant covers the cost of teaching equipment and will meet the salary of a full-time qualified teacher for the next five years. A teacher at the Sandy Bay Crippled Children’s Home on the Island of Victoria in Hong Kong is also being sponsored by the society. An important activity of the Sabah Red Cross is the care Of crippled people and the provision of treatment and artificial limbs. Many of the patients have to travel considerable distances to the centre in Jesselton to receive treatment, and the provision of accommodation has been a problem. In response to an appeal, the New Zealand Red Cross is to contribute towards a 10-bed accommodation block to be built adjacent to the Red Cross headquarters in Jesselton. Plans have now been completed and building will start shortly. Training schools for nurses and hospitals are run by many of the Red Cross societies in South-east Asia. Last year a number of these societies advised that they were anxious to send nurses to New Zealand for post-gradu-ate training. To further this project the society has launched a South-east Asian scholarship. By means of this scholarship the society hopes that at least two nurses will be brought to this country at the end of the year in preparation for the 1966 training year.

These projects are in addition to the regular relief work which is part of the society’s normal activities.