Two GOAL volunteers are flying to Freetown, Sierra Leone, today to help 10,000 refugees from the civil war who are crowded into docks area of the city without food, water or sanitation.
Mr John O'Shea, GOAL's director, said the people are to be moved to a proper camp "in three months' time, but many will die unless we act now."
Sister Kathleen Harte, a mental handicap nurse from Cork and Sister Geraldine Henry, from Belfast, will join a GOAL assessment team in Freetown which has noted signs of malnutrition. "There are women giving birth there while beside them their children are starving," said Sister Kathleen.
"These people are from rural areas of Sierra Leone. They are impoverished and the city is alien to them. We will be supply food and water and en there is proper sanitation".
Mr O'Shea said GOAL had initially committed £50,000. Those most at risk, such as children, will be given extra feeding in the makeshift transit camp to ensure they are not separated from their families.