Cyclone Winston, a category 5 hurricane, made landfall in Taveuni on 20 February 2016, before heading west on the 21st. While other parts of Fiji were relatively unscathed, there is extensive damage in Taveuni, Savusavu and the Rakiraki area (north east of Viti Levu).
Waitabu Village – FIJI – Cyclone Winston Appeal
Houses are flattened, belongings are saturated and scattered, farms are destroyed. It will take months for many of the farmers to be able to feed themselves and send crops to market. Children will be out of school for lack of stationary, uniforms and exercise books.
The various aid agencies have swung into motion. On Taveuni the Fiji Red Cross and the Rotary Clubs around Fiji are active, and the Loloma Foundation is working closely with tourism operators (Nakia Dive Resort and Nai’a Cruises to name a few) to deliver relief packages.
The worst hit areas were South Taveuni (Vuna village), Lavena, and Waitabu. Vuna and Lavena are basically levelled. Waitabu was third worst hit with 7 out of 25 houses collapsed and the rest with varying amounts of damage, but fortunately no one was hurt.
Waitabu Village – FIJI – Cyclone Winston Appeal
For Stuart and I, the people of Waitabu are our long term friends, who we have worked with to establish the Marine Park. They are our Fijian family, and they are in trouble.
We have already been contacted by ex students and Peace Corps volunteers who have established strong relationships with the people of Waitabu, and who want to find a way to assist their friends.
We know many of you have visited, or are thinking of visiting Waitabu, and may want to help them as well.
Thanks to immediate donations from such people, Waitabu now has enough food for the next 2 weeks, and enough roofing iron and nails to construct temporary shelters for those who lost housing. More food support over the next weeks and months will be needed, as well as seeds to restart their plantations and gardens.
Once they have crops in the field, they will have food security and income generation again. We also hope to raise enough to ambien solar lanterns to provide light where there is no electricity and no money for kerosene. If we get large donations, we would be looking for building materials for home reconstruction in the future.
Every penny donated here will go directly to the purchase and transport of provisions and supplies to Waitabu Village on Taveuni. Nothing will be kept back for organisational or administration costs.
However, this is a personally administered fund, and there are other, more formal organisations you may prefer to support in a more general way:
For direct support to Waitabu through this page,
click to donate HERE
For Taveuni in general
The Loloma Fundation is a VERY worthy and trustworthy organisation working to bring medical services and supplies to Taveuni, Beqa and the Yasawa Islands. They have a website that allows you to make simple donations that we can be assured will go where they are needed. http://www.lolomafoundation.org/
To send assistance to all the badly hit areas of Fiji such as Savusavu and Rakiraki and well as Taveuni:
Fiji Red Cross
The always reliable Fiji Red Cross. Donations can be sent to the following account:
The Fiji Times and Red Cross Society TC Winston National Appeal
ANZ account #1313354
ANZ Fiji Swift Code ANZBFJFX
BSB 010890 (ANZ House, Suva)
Save the Children
For specifically children’s assistance across Fiji:
- WASH supplies F$15 (to decontaminate water)
- School Bag Kits F$30 (backpack with stationery and lunch box)
- Classroom Kits F$84 (plastic trunk with stationery and learning materials)
ANZ Bank Account: Save the Children Fiji Disaster donation
Account # 11316003
ANZ Fiji Swift Code ANZBFJFX
BSB 010890 (ANZ House, Suva)
Housing
Habitat for Humanity
http://www.give2habitat.org/fiji/cyclonewinston
Prime Minister’s National Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation: Cyclone Winston Fund
http://www.fiji.gov.fj/Media-Center/Press-Relea…
Thanks in advance. All donations, big or small, sent to us or to any of the other organisations will make a difference to people who are really going to struggle without us.
Helen Sykes
Marine Ecology Consulting, (Fiji)
Stuart Gow and Helen Sykes have been working with Waitabu Village since 1998 when the first Marine Park was set up.
