By Rob O’Brien
The Victorian Local Governance Association (VLGA) has appealed for blood and cash donations as well as offers of accommodation for victims of the bushfires that have ravaged parts of the state and left more than 100 people dead.
“We’re communicating with all of our members and councils and suggesting immediate actions or responding to what people on the ground are requesting – which are cash donations, blood donations and offers for accommodation,” the new VLGA president Rose Iser told Government News.
Ms Iser said she had spoken to a number of shocked mayors from regions affected by the bushfires and that some had struggled to get information on how badly damaged their communities had been.
“A lot of them haven’t been able to access information about their communities, certainly where there are still raging fires and they’ve not been able to get to their communities, they were in the same boat as everybody else in terms of the knowledge and uncertainty. The picture today is a bit clearer but there are still areas under threat.”
Ms Iser said that VLGA was working on ways to help affected councils through partnerships with city councils.
“The VLGA is going to develop some medium and longer term assistance plans to affected councils to ascertain what they need us to do,” she said.
“We’ve got some ideas from the feedback we’ve got from them, one of those being developing some strong links between unaffected metro councils and rural councils that have been badly affected.
Donations can be made to victims of the bushfires through the Red Cross website or by phoning 1800 811 700.
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