Fiji(Taveuni emergency relief)

I was born on this island and have been through most of the cyclones, however Winston was something else. Winds of 300kmh flattened the houses and crops have been totally destroyed - as if a tsunami had hit them. There is literally notthing left.

My island is inevitably one of the last to get help from the Government and often it was forgotten totally. The families in my village of Vuna are suffering, they have no evacuation centers and are surving on whatever they can piece together to provide shelter. They are running out of food supplies and are just surving on coconuts and whatever rootcrops that they can gather. They are sleeping in the open or in makeshift shelters. My particular concern is for the infant children and what their parents are unable to provide for them at this desperate time.

We are working with Rotary Australia and Fiji to ship a container filled with basic building materials direct to the most desperately needed area of south Taveuni. The money you donate will help facilitate this as well as to purchase local supplies of basic emergency supplies like roofing iron, timber, milk, porridge, noodles, tuna, biscuits, basic medical supplies for kids and blankets.

I have been through this myself as a child so many times when I was going up. I have experienced the hunger and hardship and the disappointment as promised help fails to arrive and it becomes slowly obvious that it is not coming. It breaks my heart when I think of infant children suffering as I did at times like this. This is the reason I want to help and I can only do it with all your help and your kind hearts.

Rosalia Niubalavu-Wright