Communities show resilience, needs remain high

Communities show resilience, needs remain high

Friday 27 March 2015

Two weeks since severe Cyclone Pam struck Vanuatu with ferocious winds, heavy rain and tidal surges leaving thousands of people homeless, Red Cross is scaling up relief efforts to support thousands of families.

Jacqueline De Gaillande, CEO of Vanuatu Red Cross, says even though homes have been damaged, crops destroyed and water sources contaminated, communities are showing high levels of resilience, but the task ahead is enormous and ongoing humanitarian support is needed.

“In the wake of the cyclone communities immediately rallied together to clean up and begin rebuilding,” says Jacqueline. “The Red Cross is supporting some of the worst hit communities by providing urgently needed shelter materials, essential household items and clean drinking water.”

The Red Cross response has reached over 10,000 people across 13 islands with relief support and as the operation continues to scale up thousands more people will receive assistance in the coming days.

The aid challenge

“The logistics of delivering aid to an affected population across 22 islands is incredibly challenging,” says Jacqueline. “An operation like this means we need to hire boats, charter planes and use helicopters to ship supplies to remote locations.

“We’ve just had a team return form a three day boat trip to provide relief supplies to six islands in the Shepherd Islands group. They reported many challenges including rough seas. Even in these circumstances our volunteers and staff are working tirelessly day and night to deliver critical relief supplies.”

With more than 75,000 people in need of emergency shelter, the Red Cross response is currently focussed on providing life saving supplies. Over 70 volunteers are mobilised daily to help Vanuatu Red Cross with the response operation along with a team of 20 international Red Cross staff.

“Once the acute phase of our response is complete Red Cross will be supporting communities to recovery to help people not only build back better in terms of physical reconstruction but to also develop further resilience through things like potable water sourcing, health education, hygiene promotion and first aid trainings.”

“Red Cross will also enhance early warning and disaster preparedness through community trainings, contingency planning and the stocking of emergency supplies.”

Saving lives by being prepared

Vanuatu Red Cross has a long history of working on disaster risk reduction programs with hazard prone communities. With a network of community volunteers in all provinces and islands, the Red Cross played a key role in issuing early warnings before Cyclone Pam struck.

“We would expect a cyclone packing winds of over 250 kph to cause a high number of deaths and injuries,” says Jacqueline. “However, many lives were saved because of the preparation and swift warnings from the Vanuatu Red Cross and the authorities.

ENDS

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