Aid by Christmas?

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 14

Aid by Christmas?

A medical team from the Save the Children Fund might be allowed into Kampuchea before Christmas, according to the fund’s Commonwealth Fund-raising directors (Miss E. Nicholson). International agencies were allowed into Kampuchea for only three days at a time, under strict surveillance. However, it seemed the Kampuchean Government might soon reconsider the position, she said. Miss Nicholson, who is based in London, was in Wellington recently talking to S.C.F. branches and appealing for funds for Kampuchea. “Failure by the United ■Nations to recognise the ; Kampuchean Government ■ has been a serious stumbling ’ block to obtaining perI mission to enter the country | with aid,” said Miss NicholIson. ■ If visas were granted,

medical teams and supplies would be sent in to set up mother-child health care clinics. “The biggest problems are disease, lack of medical care, and transporting supplies. Only 47 out of about 800 doctors have survived the new regime. The rest have been wiped out,” said Miss Nicholson. The fund’s task would be made easier if traces remained of its previous relief work in Kampuchea. The organisation had worked in Indo-China for 15 years before the fall of South Vietnam in 1976. It left behind

many mother-child health clinics and if any of them survived it would be easier to “pick up the threads and start again,” said Miss Nicholson. The fund has nine teams giving aid to more than 250,000 refugees in camps on Thailand’s north-east border. Two more teams are helping 70,000 refugees who have reached Hong Kong. More than SIM has been spent in Kampuchea from funds raised by the Save the Children Fund in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. New Zealand S.C.F.’s contribution has been SIO,OOO.