GIFT CLINIC LIES IDLE

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32778, 1 December 1971, Page 3

GIFT CLINIC LIES IDLE

CN.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) CHI LANG (South Vietnam), Nov. 30. A $2200 dispensary built as a New Zealand Amy civic action project in the delta region of South Vietnam is still empty and untouched five months after it was opened. The three-room dispensary was opened and handed to the Vietnamese in a formal ceremony on June 30. It has never been put to use because village officials say they have no doctor or nurse to run it, and no medical supplies. The clinic is at Voi Hai, one of seven hamlets making up the village of Tu Te, near the Chi Lang national training centre, about 175 miles south-west of Saigon.

The New Zealand Amy gave the money for the dispensary as its first civic action project in the region, soon after a 25-man training team was posted to Chi Lang early this year. It is believed that village officials thought the New Zealanders planned to staff and supply the dispensary after it was opened. The 16,000 people who

live in the seven hamlets have no hospital or clinic in the area.

New Zealand military authorities are closely ex-, amining further civic action proposals. Members of the village council asked the New Zealanders to build a market place, but this was rejected when it was found that a new market had been built only recently. The New Zealanders are now examining a proposal to finance the first secondary school in the area. A four-room school, serving children from three hamlets and costing about $lO,OOO, is being considered. An assurance has been received that education authorities in Saigon have approved teachers Tor the school.