Vital aids and supplies heading from Highlands to cyclone-hit Fiji
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A consignment of restored wheelchairs along with sleeping bags, blankets and sheets are on the way from the Highlands to Fiji.
The items will be used to help people with mobility problems as well as recovery efforts after the islands were hit by a tropical cyclone in December, leaving thousands homeless.
It is the latest shipment in an ongoing project involving Inverness Culloden Rotary Club which has teamed up with UK charity PhysioNet, NHS Highland, Inverness Men’s Shed and Inverness Prison to restore wheelchairs and mobility equipment which were due to be decommissioned and to send them to various countries around the world.
Following an appeal by the club, additional items such as towels, blankets and sleeping bags are also being sent to storm-hit Fiji – although the club is now looking for a good home for 200 duvets and 200 pillows which could not be sent.
Those responding to the appeal for blankets included Fijian Luisa Matatolu, now living in the Highland capital.
Mrs Matatolu, whose husband serves with the military, had coincidentally come across PhysioNet while she was looking to support a project helping people with spinal injuries in memory of her sister Mereani.
Her sister was left a quadriplegic at the age of 15 following a diving accident in her school swimming pool and subsequently received help from Rotarians with the supply of a wheelchair.
Sadly, Mereani passed away in 1996, two years after the accident.
Mrs Matatolu, who came to the UK in 2012, has lived in Inverness for just over two years.
With the help of friends and colleagues, the bank worker managed to collect 10 bags of items to be loaded on to the van going from Inverness to PhysioNet’s Yorkshire base for onward shipment.
"One of my colleagues is part of a knitting club and they gave bags of knitted blankets," Mrs Matatolu said.
"I feel really honoured and pleased to have been a part of this."
With another shipment due to leave Inverness later this year, she hopes to raise funds and collect more items.
Derek McRae, the project’s organiser for Inverness Culloden Rotary Club, said almost 70 wheelchairs had been despatched from Inverness in the latest consignment along with the equivalent of three car loads of blankets to help with the recovery efforts in Fiji.
He said the club had also accepted 200 duvets and 200 pillows along with covers which would otherwise have gone to landfill.
He said he would be interested in hearing from anyone who could put them to a humanitarian use.
Mr McRae can be contacted via derekjmcrae@googlemail.com
