Tribute to Erica Henley and Operation Hope
27th February 2020
Mr GREG PIPER (Lake Macquarie)—I wish to acknowledge the wonderful work of Coal Point resident Erica Henley and a small group of volunteers behind Operation Hope in Lake Macquarie.
Operation Hope, founded by Erica in 2017, has been sourcing and collecting donations of unused medical equipment and supplies from hospitals and shipping them to northern Iraq where they are used to treat thousands of refugees and people in need.
The charity raised $28,000 in 2017 which funded two new wards in an emergency field hospital outside of Mosul.
It then raised a further $17,000 to fund surgeries and treatments for women and children who had fled Mosul.
Since then, it has acquired several shipping containers and filled them with donated medical equipment from hospitals and medical centres throughout NSW.
The value of that equipment, which no longer meets Australian standards, is in the order of a million dollars and is now being used in hospitals in Syria and Northern Iraq, and refugee camps in Kurdistan.
It is obviously not an easy job, but one that has provided enormous benefit to those in need.
I applaud Erica and all associated with Operation Hope.