AmeriCares Sends $1.5 Million in Medical Supplies to Fuji

STAMFORD, CT - The first of three shipments of relief supplies for cyclone-ravaged Fiji have been shipped from AmeriCares' Stamford headquarters.

The agency announced Monday that the series of emergency shipments follows the deployment of a team of relief workers to meet residents’ health needs after the Cyclone Winston, a Category 5 storm made landfall on Feb. 20, destroying the South Pacific islands and leaving nearly 350,000 survivors in need of assistance.

The relief supplies include antibiotics, respiratory medicines, cardiovascular medicine and pediatric medications. Two more shipments are planned — for a total of 46,000 pounds of medicine and relief supplies valued at $1.5 million on the way to cyclone survivors. More than a dozen companies donated products for the effort, including GSK, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., Pfizer and Teligent, Inc., according to AmeriCares.

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“We are responding to a request from the Ministry of Health to meet the most urgent health needs,” AmeriCares Director of Emergency Response Kate Dischino, who is leading the AmeriCares team in Fiji, said in a statement. “Many health facilities lost medicine and supplies in the floodwaters, and are now experiencing a surge in demand for care. The medicine and supplies from AmeriCares will help sustain health services in the hardest hit communities.”

AmeriCares deployed additional relief workers last weekend to assist the Ministry of Health with the distribution of medicine and supplies. According to AmeriCares, 30 percent of the country’s health facilities were damaged by the cyclone.

To make a donation to AmeriCares International Disaster Relief Fund, go to www.americares.org/cyclone

Photo courtesy of AmeriCares: AmeriCares emergency response team member Tom Cotter (center) delivers medicine to the Mission at Navutu Creek clinic on Vanua Levu Island, Fiji, on March 1.