Vanuatu Red Cross

A category 4 cyclone with destructive winds of up to 150 km per hour and gusting to 200 km per hour, has also caused severe damage to infrastructure, buildings, connectivity, and crops.

Port Vila and Tanna felt the brunt of the cyclone with power outage and water cuts in some of the worst affected communities.

Vanuatu Red Cross is working with authorities to ascertain how many households require immediate assistance as well as provide first aid to individuals.

Vanuatu Red Cross Secretary General, Dickinson Tevi said:

Vanuatu has recorded more than 7,600 Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths since the beginning of the year - and has only 38 percent of its population fully vaccinated.

Secretary-general Dickinson Tevi said getting vaccines to other provinces and outer islands so that more ni-Vanuatu people are inoculated is a challenge for the authorities.

Tevi said the movement restrictions currently in place to stop the spread of community transmissions is also slowing down the process.

Tevi is not new to the role as he was acting SG for nine months following the expiry of Jacqueline De Gaillande’s contract in January this year.

Following his appointment, Tevi said he would like to see a strong national society that has the capacity to provide humanitarian emergency response whenever disaster strikes.

“This means building a strong decentralised structure for the Red Cross with a good stakeholder and public authority network.  An indicator for this would be the expansion of Branches to Sub-Branches in all 6 provinces.”

The “Supporting Community Resilience through Household Food Security and Women’s Empowerment” project intends to contribute towards food security by integrating an early warning system and seasonal forecast as a guide for farmers in determining cropping patterns and choosing crop varieties that are either drought or flood-resistant.

The MOU brings together the three strategic service delivery partners.

“We had learned that in Vanuatu we have many and strong local capacities available in the country to respond to emergencies. Some strong local organizations and actors have demonstrated during TC Harold which shows Vanuatu has the local capacity,” said Save the Children Country Director Luke Ebbs.

We operate 6 branches in Vanuatu and this partnership will assist Red Cross to build and strengthen its capacity to reach out more effectively during disasters,” said VRCS Interim SG Dickinson Tevi.

Aid came in from New Zealand and Australia shortly after the category five storm devastated the central and northern islands of Vanuatu.

Last week a french aircraft from New Caledonia landed in Port Vila with more relief supplies.

The Disaster Management's co-ordinator of logistics, Jimmy Nauru, said they have loaded two boats with aid that came in two 20 foot containers.

"That's part of a big assistance. The team are working on those items, moving those items to the outer islands that really need those items. Apart from that we have Australia and New Zealand."

The families received items such as tarpaulins, hygiene kits, blankets, kitchen set, sleeping mats, jerry cans, shelter tool kit and mosquito nets. 

These relief items were donated by International Federation Red Cross IFRC, New Zealand Red Cross, Australian Red Cross.

The Red Cross staff and volunteers were mobilized immediately to support affected communities identified by NDMO for Red Cross to respond.

The project was funded by DoWR and UNICEF and implemented by Vanuatu Water Service, who offered the water laboratory testing and procurement of different household water filters. Under this project, VRCS was engaged in the community mobilization, awareness and assessment, demonstration of the different product.

Representing the Red Cross branches are Shirley Johnson Sanma Branch Manager and Tensly Tar as Penama Part time officer, Shefa Branch volunteers as well as staffs from the Headquarter Disaster team, Communication and Planning Monitoring Evaluation Reporting team, and Finance team.

According to Vanuatu Red Cross Society, Disaster Management Coordinator, Augustin Garae, the objectives of the training are to build their human resource preparedness and response capacities to undertake and manage the basic requirements of the Red Cross’ response in times of disaster or emergency within their local communities.

However, in large-scale disasters where there is no Red Cross branch presence, they may be dispatched to respond outside of their own communities.