Cyclone Pam

Vanuatu Council of Ministers extends term of Pam recovery committee

The committee will continue its work into next year to ensure all the money in the recovery fund is spent and that the closure of the Recovery and Economic Strengthening Plan is smooth and efficient.

Chairperson of the PRC and parliamentarian, Johnny Koanapo Rasou says he is very pleased with the progress of the implementation of the rebuilding programme.

According to Mr Rasou, the government has been informed of the progress so far.

NZ uni funds cyclone proof kindy in Vanuatu

More than $US20,000 was raised to build the kindergarten with the Victoria University of Wellington matching the $US10,000 raised by its students and the community.

The University worked in partnership with Volunteer Services Abroad and the Vanuatu education ministry to establish the kindergarten in the town of Manua on Efate.

Aussie teen Zoe Marshall returning to Vanuatu a year on from going missing after Cyclone Pam

Not that she’d had much sleep. The Canberra teenager was three days into post-cyclone life on the devastated island of Pentecost in Vanuatu.

Cyclone Pam, the fatal storm that tore through the island nation with wind gusts up to 320km/h, had struck.

One year on from Tropical Cyclone Pam, Red Cross reaches 44,000 people with humanitarian assistance

Vanuatu bore the brunt of the disaster but Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea were also badly affected. In the last twelve months, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) working with National Red Cross Societies in the region, has reached more than 44,000 people across all five affected countries with direct humanitarian assistance.

Farming recovers in Vanuatu

Acting Director for Agriculture, Mark Vurobaravu said this week, communities that were destroyed heavily by the natural disaster are back to their subsistence life.

Vurobaravu said people have restocked seeds and planting materials of food crops and re-built their gardens. 

They planted planting materials that were destroyed, he said, and they did that soon after the event, well before they dried up.

However he also revealed that the current El Nino has disturbed a lot of work put into the recovery initiatives.

Support for tourism in Vanuatu

   

The Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Steve Ciobo has announced that Australia will support a campaign to boost tourism in Vanuatu to help restore vital income for the people who were devastated by the severe tropical cyclone earlier this year.

ADB sponsoring new school in post-cyclone Vanuatu

The grant is provided by the Japanese government, through the Asian Development Bank, and will be used to rebuild at least five junior and secondary schools in the badly-hit Tafea province.

The regional director of the ADB's Pacific office, Andrea Iffland, says the schools will be built to achieve a safer, clean learning environment for students.

Disaster trauma on agenda at Pacific health summit

The Pasifika Medical Association conference was officially opened today in Port Vila by the president of Vanuatu, Father Baldwin Lonsdale.

The president of PMA, Kiki Maoate, says many people were affected psychologically by Cyclone Pam, and the mental recovery process is ongoing.

Dr Maoate says the conference will allow participants to share their experiences on dealing with mental health issues.

Niue provides foreign aid to Tuvalu

The Premier Toke Talagi handed over a cheque for US$6,300 to his Tuvalu counterpart, Enele Sopoaga, during the recent Pacific Forum summit.

Niue has very close links with Tuvalu, with a number of Tuvalu nationals living on the island.

Work underway to build new disaster centres in Vanuatu

The government has signed a contract for the construction of the centres in the provinces of Torba and Tafea and they are due to be completed by next February.

The facilities will cost US$400,000 to build and will include rooms for use as national disaster operation centres.

Provincial disaster officers have been stationed at the sites since April last year.

The government says the new facilities will strengthen emergency responses in the two provinces and are part of a continued disaster response effort.