Classes resume in Fiji after Cyclone Winston
Fiji schools due to restart today but devastation and trauma after Cyclone Winston prompt calls for compassion and flexibility.
Transcript
It's more than a week since Cyclone Winston hit Fiji and the country is trying to return to some kind of normality.
The government said after the category five cyclone it wanted children back at school today but many are too devastated for classes to resume.
The government has called on parents to make sure their children are adequately supervised if they can't go back immediately and has also called on schools to be compassionate and flexible towards students.
Alex Perrottet is in the Fijian capital Suva.
ALEX PERROTTET: I found it a little bit unbelievable really to be in the remote interior at Nadalei village with the PM who was telling all these people, there were 15 families there in the Nadelei catholic school classrooms, which were pretty bad, in bad condition, leaking at the time. And he was saying school will go back on Monday and you will all have shelters by then. He brought with them a lot of other sorts of aid, but they were certainly not building shelters there and I doubt that children are back at school there. I mean the village is just in shell shock. There was a huge list of schools listed in the Fiji Sun newspaper yesterday that are due to go back to school today. In some parts that will be realistic but I noted that Nasomolevu school in the Yasawas is not due to go back today because that had such extensive damage. Up in Rakiraki in the province of Ra in the Western Division, Penang Sangam school which is also an evacuation centre with extensive damage, that was not listed as well. And there were several others. But a long list of schools that have reopened and people trying to get back to their normal lives here in Fiji.
SALLY ROUND: Now this is the first time you've been in Suva on this trip after Cyclone Winston. What's the atmosphere like?
AP: It's a stunningly beautiful and warm summer's day here in Suva. People are trying to get back to work. There is of course the very notable presence of the military, NZ Defence Force people are walking up and down the street, many of them staying where I am staying and scrambling to arrange accommodation. There are military men whose job is simply that - to arrange accommodation for those who remain here in I suppose their mission headquarters. There is also the French military and others. The French have been flying aid to Taveuni. Here in Suva people have been told don't try to get to the outer islands. The flight I was on to Taveuni there were only four of us, people aren't rushing back there but are very concerned about their families and friends. Because they just haven't been able to get in touch with them. So people scrambling into internet cafes - but really it is mobile phones that wil be first up and running as they were on Taveuni but still there is no internet access on those islands as yet.
SR: And on the subject of communications, what is the latest on restoring links to those remote islands?
AP: I have seen some amazing photos of the crumpled communications tower on Mago island. That's the one owned by Mel Gibson, and it is the main communication tower for those islands. And so Vodafone are working on getting communications out there. They are actually the first to fly to Vanua Balavu and did a great job in taking aid there immediately. And I will be talking to Vodafone today about what they are doing to reestablish the communications in that area, considering there is such extensive damage done to that tower.
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