$1.75M for Hope

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 24

$1.75M for Hope

PA Wellington New Zealanders have given $1.75 million to Operation Hope — $38,000 more than the cost of the aid expedition to Ethiopia. The Operation Hope committee expects the cost of filling and sending the ship Ngahere to Port Sudan to be about $1.71 million.

The first estimate was $1.75 million, but discounts on goods and services provided by companies had lowered the cost, the committee’s convener, Mr lan Johnstone, has said. The committee intended adding the $38,000 surplus to Government funds for famine relief.

The money would be sent

to agencies in Ethiopia and the Sudan to help move wheat, peas, milk powder and tools from Port Sudan to the famine victims, he said. The Ngahere arrived in Port Sudan last week and the distribution of supplies to famine victims in north east Africa has begun. The committee thanked all the New Zealanders who gave money, food, time and work to Operation Hope and to all the organising agencies, Mr Johnstone said. “But the people who deserve most thanks, on behalf of all New Zealand, are the maritime union volunteers, Captain Tony Dunkley and his crew, who delivered the

goods and took the Hope to Africa.” Mr Johnstone said famine ' relief work in north-east Africa would have to con- ■ tinue for years to come. Trading and trustee banks •' would keep Operation Hope’s account open, he : said. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said yesterday that any surplus from the money raised would be dis- ‘ tributed to international aid agencies working in the famine area. He told a post-Cabinet press conference that the Government had been prepared to cover any extra costs incurred by Operation Hope.