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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 9. 1ts May 1973

What the Vietnamese Want

What the Vietnamese Want

The Committee on Vietnam and the New Zealand Medical Aid Committee are to launch a nationwide appeal for medical and reconstruction aid to Indochina.

All donations for medical aid will be handled by the N.Z. Medical Aid Committee to the Liberation Red Cross in South Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese Red Cross. If possible, all donations for reconstruction aid will be sent as cash grants direct to Hanoi. Donors will be given a choice as to whether their contribution should be for medical or reconstruction aid.

Last year the Vietnam Aid Appeal (organised by the C.O.V.) and the N.Z. Medical Aid Committee sent nearly $20,000 worth of medical supplies to Indochina through Britain. In its report to the Annual Meeting of the Committee on Vietnam, the Aid Appeal Committee outlined how the money it had raised had been spent:

"The money forwarded to Britain has all been quickly spent on urgently needed medical supplies for Indochina, with the great bulk of recent dispatches going straight to the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam via Dazimina - their representative in Hanoi. Supplies recently received by the P.R.G. include sets of clinical test reagents, ion exchange equipment for producing pure water for medical injection purposes, blood pressure apparatus, blood sedimentation test stands, antimalarial Malaprin tablets, polybacteria sprays for surgical operations, synthetic penicillin preparations, and Septrin tablets for treating infections. Similar supplies have been received by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Laotian Patriotic Fund, and the Cambodian Red Cross. These supplies have helped to meet urgent medical needs at a time when President Nixon was engaging in the heaviest bombings of the war."

The N.Z. Medical Aid Committee and the C.O.V. have proved that they are the best channels for sending aid to the people of Indochina. Unlike organisations like World Vision they spend only about 6% of their income on administration. Unlike aid sent through Saigon and Phnom Penh regimes, none of their aid goes into the pockets of corrupt officials. Their National Medical Aid and Reconstruction Aid Appeal deserves your support because your donations will be spent on what the people of Indochina want, or will be sent straight to them.

N.Z. Medical Aid Committee, P.O. Box 6601, Auckland. Committee on Vietnam, P.O. Box 534, Wellington.