Maternity hospital badly damaged by Winston

A maternity hospital in Ra province has been badly damaged by cyclone Winston.

The Catholic nuns who run the hospital are calling for help to rebuild.

The roof of their quarters was ripped off during the cyclone and the delivery room and sterilisation unit are damaged.

The 44 year old hospital has been operated by the Catholic Church since 1970.

According to the Ra Maternity Hospital records, at least 10,354 women have come through the facility between 2009 and 2014.

There has been widespread damage in the Ra province.

“Ra is an ugly situation and even the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) team were victims of TC Winston,” said Commissioner Western Manasa Tagicakibau.

Forty one villages in the Province have yet to report their status to the Ra provincial administrator’s operation team in Rakiraki.

A team from the Fiji Times was in Rakiraki on Wednesday where it was confirmed that out of the 93 villages in the province, 41 have yet to establish contact with authorities.

Ana, 22, gave birth to a baby girl on Tuesday evening in the hospital, the first post cyclone baby to be born in the Ra province.

She is recovering in the hospital’s delivery room.

Naming babies born during storms after particular cyclones is a common tradition in the Pacific.

But the baby probably won’t be called Winston.

Ana is considering the name Philomena for her baby girl.

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News category: Asia Pacific.

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