MOI FOOD RELIEF DISTRIBUTION & COVID-19 SCOPING MISSION A SUCCESS

National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) completed food relief for Malaita Outer Islands (MOI) early this month following assessment by the Malaita Province Livelihood Committee, benefiting nearly 5000 inhabitants.

The distribution of food include a total of 2727 bags of rice.

The food relief covered about 5000 inhabitants, approximately 792 households in Luaniua, Pelau in Ontong Java Atoll and Sikaiana Atoll.

Malaita Provincial Government also provided additional 96 bags of rice for Sikaiana.

Another objective of the trip was to assist National Disaster Operations Sector Committees (N-DOC) with their counterparts in Malaita Provincial Disaster Operations Committee (P-DOC) to conduct COVID-19 scoping and awareness raising programmes, and deliver services to these remote islands.

A statement from the National Disaster Council (NDC) said that the overall operation was a success.

“Food relief was delivered to each household under the management and observation of Malaita Provincial Disaster Office to ensure fair distribution.

“MOI continues to experience challenges to ensuring food security given the impacts of salt water intrusion and storm surges affecting their food garden patches, on-going challenges of having alternative livelihood sources on the islands, lack thereof of Agriculture and Fisheries officers on the ground to provide technical support and advice islanders on agriculture and fisheries issues,” NDC stated.

“Also the lack of frequent shipping services to the islands poses another challenge to support the livelihood and economic needs of these low lying islands growing populations,” it adds.

Table below shows the travelling Government team’s composition.

Sector	Tasks
NDMO and Malaita Provincial Disaster Office	Coordination – food relief operations and deployment coordination. Supported by NDMO Staff and 15 casuals engaged.
Education	Awareness on education programmes, appraisals and roll out on COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Supported by N-DOC Education and Provincial Education
Health	Clinical, general outpatient, doctor consultations and referral, etc. and COVID-19 response plans. Supported by N-DOC Health and Provincial Health Authorities
Livelihood	COVID-19 awareness and food security consultations, land use feasibility assessment and water quality assessment. Supported by N-DOC Livelihood and Provincial Livelihood Team
Safety and Security	Operation Safety & Security, Immigration and Biosecurity; Border Assessment & Emergency. Supported by Provincial RSIPF Team
Provincial Administration	Sport facilitation, revenue collection, mobilization strategy and collection
Provincial Government	Awareness on service delivery, implementation from Ward Development Grant/Provincial Capacity Development Fund, logistics, official visit, political/government policy and local council of chief consultations.

Another food relief is planned for border communities of the Shortland Islands, Western Province, following assessment by the Livelihood Committee of Western Province.

Ends

Press Release