An advance party of Army engineers, medical and logistics personnel will travel to Central America on Monday as part of the humanitarian aid project undertaken by the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, to help Hondurans afflicted by Hurricane Mitch last autumn.
The project will be part-financed by the £200,000 in aid announced yesterday by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, on his return from a 10-day tour of the afflicted areas of Central America.
The party of eight is travelling to the coastal town of Santa Rosa Aguan, where it is to build a school and medical clinic. A further 20 Army personnel are following in a week's time.
As well as the three-month building project, the Army medical staff will help set up a programme for the treatment of diseases which followed the flooding.