Tuesday January 6 2009, Generator for Angkor Hospital for Children, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

A request came to ODRI via Peter Braun on behalf of the Ankor Hospital for Children. Their electricity generator had broken down and although they had switched to mains power, it was very unreliable and frequently off for at least five hours every day.

As a charity pediatric hospital with a functional operating theatre and a few ventilators on which their sickest children depend, they had an urgent need to maintain a reliable power supply.

The financial burden of renting a replacement generator was preventing some of the hospitals good work because they had to spend money otherwise used for consumables [bandages, medicine etc].

ODRI contacted Deputy Lord Mayor Marcelle Hoff of City of Sydney Council , who were able to donate an old hospital generator that had been sitting unused for some 14 years. The council generously agreed to donate this surplus equipment to the Ankor Hospital for the benefit of the children.

Cummins Diesel was able to provide a manul for the unit and a service inspection prior to removal.  The original controller was faulty and a replacement unit was generously supplied by Mecc Alte Alternators of South Australia.

January 12, 2009, a 40 degree day, the generator was emptied of fuel, drained of oil, (drums courtesy of Meadow Lea) and wrapped in plastic and a tarpaulin and moved, courtesy of  Johnstons Transport, who dragged the generator unit out of the basement with a 5 tonne forklift.

Thanks again to ACP Customs who kindly handled all the paperwork and shipping logistics. 

17 December 2008, More relief supplies for survivors of the Kokoda Track flooding.

Patrick Lindsay from the Kokoda Track Foundation approached us to request more assistance because a storm surgen [with 9m waves] had just washed out parts the region.

Kori Chan boots. through for the people suffering the longer term effects of flooding and landslides.

We were able to assist from our stockpiles of tarpaulines and ropes that are processed with the assistance of Correctional Services out at Parramatta Gaol.

Thanks to Jets Transport Services for picking up the goods and sending them to Brisbane

Port Moresby in New Guinea free of charge.

Thursday October 23, 2008
Team Effort Helps Orphans in South Africa

For the last two years Vic Laurence has been trying to transport a load of donated goods to the Embizweni Day Care Centre in Soweto, South Africa. 

Many people were happy to donate the books, toys, blankets, cots and other desperately needed items, but his attempts to get these goods into Africa, had been a nightmare.

In desperation, Vic approached Nelson Mandella and asked for advice.

Mr Mandella suggested that the Rev Bill Crews from the Exodus Foundation might be able to help him.

Bill was very sympathetic and called in the team :

Michael Crews from Exodus, Guy Chenery from ODRI and Danielle Dutra from ACP Customs Services.

Michael and Exodus provided overall coordination through his connections to Danielle and Guy, as well as travelling to South Africa to oversee the recieving end of the operation.

Guy and ODRI managed the logistics of receiving the donations along with procuring and loading the 20 foot shipping container to be sent to South Africa by Danielle and ACP Customs Services. 

On loading the container with the donated goods Guy discovered that just under a third of the container was still empty, so the remaining 10 cubic metres was filled from ODRI's stocks.

The majority of the additional goods had been donated to ODRI by Australia's leading Airline [who wish their generosity to remain anonymous!] 

ODRI would like to thank correcive services for their assistance in providing a workforce to load the container.

Thanks also go to the volunteers from Childcare Superfund.

12 October, 2008, More Aid for Burma (Myanmar)

As ODRI's third response to the massive flooding in the Irrawaddy Delta region of Burma we have prepared and dispatched a third load of goods to assist the people of the Irrawaddy Delta region.

Once again the team at ODRI worked on the procssing, storage and dispatch of many thousands of tarpaulins, ropes and minscellaneous items.

Danielle Dutra from ACP Customs Service managed Shipping as well as the ins and outs of customs responsibilities while Michael Crews from the Exodus foundation worked again with the King of Thailand to get the goods from Bangkock to Yangon (formerly Rangoon)

Michael was also able to bring us back some pictures of the goods being unloaded in Yangon.