Mother and Baby Pack to Tonga

At our last board meeting it was agreed that our club would fund the shipment of 50 Mother and Baby packs to the isolated island of Ha’apai in Tonga.  Ha’apai is an isolated island an 8 hour boat ride from the mainland of Tonga.   The packs are sent via Rotary World Community Service to Rotarian Peter Poulsen in Tonga and he in turn arranges for the packs to be shipped direct to Midwife Sokopeti on the island of Ha’apai. 

The mother and baby packs are an ongoing annual project that is led by Claire Eyes, wife of PDG Alan Eyes of the Pukekohe Rotary Club.  It is the follow on from a very successful 3 year Maternal and Child Health VTT project that was funded by Districts 9920 and 9070 (Canberra) and the Rotary Foundation.  This project enabled 32 midwives for the Pacific Islands, including Kiribati, to undertake leadership training at the University of Canberra.  Claire was the leader for this VTT project.   Midwife Sokopeti was an attendee at the Canberra VTT training.

Thanks to the dedication of Claire, her family, the local Pukekohe community who sponsor many of the products in the packs and our club donation the woman and babies in Tonga can enjoy the contents of the packs.