News Story

LDS Charities and Pacific Partnership 2013 Bring Medical Supplies to Samoa

LDS Charities and Pacific Partnership 2013 brought six pallets of emergency medical supplies to Samoa Red Cross this week.

LDS Charities is a humanitarian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Pacific Partnership 2013 is an initiative of the US Navy involving leaders and other personnel on board USS Pearl Harbor as well as other officials.

Representatives from LDS Charities and Pacific Partnership 2013 presented the medical supplies to Samoa Red Cross officials on 4 June in Motootua, Samoa.

LDS Charities was represented by Elaine Bond from the USA and Jana Davies from Canada, both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They serve as volunteers, and travel with the USS Pearl Harbor to provide emergency medical disaster response training.

The donated emergency modules are intended for use by trained medical personnel to save lives during responses to emergency situations like cyclones, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Having the modules already in Samoa, before an emergency, will allow help to get to where it is needed more quickly.

A group of military personnel from the US, Australia and New Zealand, joined by civilian volunteers from Samoa Red Cross and Latter-day Saint Charities, unloaded the truck which had brought the supplies from the harbor to Motootua. They stacked them neatly to form a backdrop behind the speakers at the hand-over event.

The ceremony was presided over by Namulauulu Tautala Mauala, secretary general of the Samoa Red Cross. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was represented by Sapele Faalogo, president of the Pesega Samoa Stake, and George Hunt, the Church’s country welfare manager for Samoa.

US Naval Commander Wallace Lovely spoke on behalf of the Pacific Partnership. He expressed his pleasure at being involved in a multi-national effort, involving numerous organisations and people to provide assistance to the people and nations of the Pacific.

He thanked LDS Charities for their donation, saying, “These goods bring hope and save lives.”

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