Fiji govt, aid groups still working on priority areas
Almost three weeks after Cyclone Winston, some Fijians are still waiting for tents and shelters, as a massive aid mission is underway to house a huge portion of the population.
Transcript
Almost three weeks after Cyclone Winston, some Fijians are still waiting for tents and shelters, as a massive aid mission is underway to house a huge portion of the population.
The category five cyclone wiped out whole villages in the Lau and Lomaiviti island groups in the east and battered towns and villages in the northern and western divisions as well as in Tailevu, near Suva.
Alex Perrottet, who was in Fiji in the aftermath of the cyclone, filed this report on the aid situation.
With most of the country in various states of desperation, the Fiji government with its aid partners are still ranking their priority areas. In the Lovu Settlement north of Lautoka, government aid has not yet arrived as it wasn't hit that hard. But the original destitute condition of the settlement means the people there are in real need. The head of C3 Church, Pastor Mike Naisau, says Tear Fund New Zealand has helped with food, shelter and clothes.
PASTOR MIKE NAISAU: They were able to send us some money across and we were able to purchase some foodstuffs, something that is necessary for the families here and we've distributed to 71 families already.
The Sangam Fiji organisation says it has raised close to $US142,000 from members in the country and abroad and its Secretary General Damend Goundar says its priority are school children.
DAMEND GOUNDAR: We have focused our attention to school children. We're providing all the children with stationery kits. That includes lecture pads, pencils, pens, erasers, basic necessities to start their basic schooling programme. These we have delivered approximately five to 5500 kits that would look after about 5000 children and on top of that we're providing lunch to students in the affected areas in that region.
Save the Children has also provided toys, arts and craft supplies and school bags, and say children as well as teachers will need ongoing support in the months ahead. But many in Fiji still lack basic needs. On Taveuni Island, Lavena village now has 15 Australian Aid tents set up, but a local policemen says the more remote villages of Navakawau and Vuna don't have any, despite losing 80 percent of their houses. On Koro Island in Lomaiviti province, arguably the worst-hit location, Fijian troops have been building shelters for over a week. Further to the east, on Vanua Balavu, the New Zealand aid mission has been focusing on providing water and repairing the school and hospital. The Fijian military Commander, Humphrey Tawake, says the jetty has been repaired, and the HMNZS Canterbury is now anchored in the lagoon. Last week he was concerned they were 800 tents short on Vanua Balavu, but now says more help has arrived. He says people will be living in them for up to two years. The Commander of New Zealand's joint forces, Major General Tim Gall, says hundreds of personnel have been working through the villages of Vanua Balavu.
TIM GALL: We have been doing quite a bit of water distribution both with the local water supply being fixed up a bit but also by producing water on the Canterbury which has quite a large water production capability and distributing that. And then the engineers have been doing a lot of work just to continue with the response piece just fixing up the immediate things that need fixing up just to get people back on their feet.
Major General Gall says the landing craft enabled crew to get heavy building supplies and tonnes of water onto the island, and now the focus is to look after the tiny islands in the Southern Lau group, where the HMNZS Wellington and helicopters are headed, to give them the same kind of support. In the weeks and months ahead, aid organisations and the Fiji government will be focusing on food security, with the ministry of agriculture providing seedlings and the national disaster management office saying it is still working on getting food rations to those that have lost their crops and livelihoods.
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