WUNRN
Vanuatu is
an Oceanian island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres
(1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres (310 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, east ofNew Guinea, southeast of the Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji.
VANUATU – WOMEN TRACK CYCLONE PAM’S DAMAGE ON SUBSISTENCE
LIVES – HEALTH, EDUCATION, FOOD, WATER, HOMES +
By Barbara
Crossette on Apr 03, 2015
Children from Erakor Bridge, a community near
the capital, Port Vila, in Vanuatu, shown after Cyclone Pam swirled through the
island nation on March 13, 2015. Erakor Bridge residents scrape by on
subsistence farming. ANNE PAKOA
On March 13, a cyclone of historic
proportions struck the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu with winds equivalent to
those of a Category 5 hurricane. The story of this disaster briefly occupied
the international media and then disappeared, perhaps because the death toll
was surprisingly low. The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs has confirmed only 16 deaths (some estimates are lower),
though not all areas of the nation, scattered over many islands, had been
reached in the count. But the ability to survive a catastrophe that robbed 80
percent of rural villagers of their livelihoods and left at least 166,000
people, more than half the national population, without food until the next
harvest was the story, and local women were a large part of it.
Anne Pakoa, head of the Vanuatu Education Policy Advocacy Coalition, is the
country’s 2015 coordinator for the Global Media Monitoring Project and its
regional partner, Fiji-based FemLinkPacific, both nongovernment
organizations dedicated to advancing the role and activity of women in
communications. In the Pacific, reporting on natural disasters by community
radio, Internet or mobile phone through the Women’s Weather Watch is one of FemLink’s
well-developed programs. Local women support government efforts through SMS
texting to prepare people for natural calamities and identify safe shelters.
Within hours after Cyclone Pam moved on, Pakoa, a nurse and nurse educator who
owns the small private Alesi clinic at Erakor Bridge, near Port Vila, the
country’s capital, began to coordinate and post damage reports. Within days,
she was leading an assessment team around her community to catalog damage and
record the most urgent requests — often painfully modest, like tents — of
people who live mostly outside a cash economy and have little buying power. Her
accounts are, in microcosm, a story of community cooperation and strength.
Excerpts follow:
A deadly silence: “People are not talking in their normal loud voices, everyone
seems to be whispering. The air is smelling [of] dead debris. You don’t even
hear any dogs barking. No birds singing. . . . We have not heard from our
families in the [outer] islands. One of our local women’s groups is on Tongoa
island for work purpose and I have not heard from them. I am very worried, but
a small voice within me is saying they are O.K. I want to believe they are O.K.
. . . There is no radio, no television, no electricity. Most people aren’t able
to charge their phones, therefore it is very hard to communicate with our
friends and families, especially those in the islands.
“It is terrible! A chicken farm on Teoma was
destroyed. Hundreds of chickens were collected from the roadsides and bushes. A
local woman had sacks and sacks full of them, selling a whole sack with over 12
chickens for only 300 vatu [$3] or 50 vatu [50 cents] each.”
The Erakor community assessment: “Over 40 youths were mobilized to carry out this assessment .
. . done systemically using a questionnaire encompassing 3 subsections: 1.
health and disability, 2. gender, children and education, 3. shelter, food and
water. Erakor Bridge is a residential area [and small beach resort] with a
total population of 1,870 people representing almost all the islands of
Vanuatu. The people of Erakor Bridge, before the monster cyclone Pam, depended
mostly on subsistence farming.
“The only privately owned school, Samasama
Ernas School, runs classes from kindergarten to Year 2 studies. The assessment
report shows that classroom is partly damaged and needs repair. There are
leakages everywhere. The library books are all destroyed. . . . Three female
teachers’ houses are all destroyed and they are very worried about not getting
paid. If parents don’t pay school fees they are afraid that meeting the cost of
staff salaries will be a problem, as they are pretty much dependent on school
fees. The owner of the school also uses her house as an evacuation center and
she knows the difficulties the parents are already facing. It will be hard for
her to chase up fees. She and the other 2 teachers also face difficulty. Their
needs at the moment would be 9 tapolens [tents or tarpaulins] that she will use
temporarily while working on the rebuilding their school [plus] a water tank
for school children.”
The human cost: “Thirty plus people have reported to have been injured and
treated for cuts from mostly nails, timber and iron sheets. Most of these
injuries happened after the cyclone. Thirteen out of these 30 people have
sought treatment at Alesi Medical Center, while 3 were referred to Vila Center
Hospital due to the severity of the injury. A male 55 years old was admitted
with severe abdominal pain who was then referred urgently for an emergency
appendectomy. Apparently his appendix broke while he was running with his sick
wife’s heavy cooking-charcoal stove, made from pure hard cement, to one of the
evacuation centers.
“At Alesi Medical Center, 38 people have been
treated with coughs after drinking unboiled water after the cyclone. while 19
people reported to have had or are having diarrhea. Medical supplies for this
disaster relief period is provided by Ministry of Health. Dr. Graeme
Cumming is a relief doctor from Brisbane [Australia], who is assisting us
seeing patients at the clinic . . . also brought in with him many medical
supplies. The clinic offers free treatment in the wake of the storm.”
Immediately after the cyclone hit, local
women’s networks acted to record the needs of families devastated by the storm.
350.ORG PACIFIC
Frail houses gone: “Out of the total number of 122 households, 13 households or
families lost their homes due to massive destruction caused by cyclone. These
13 households are to date still residing with their families, and some of them
[are] still at the evacuation camps. The rest of the 109 households lost
largely their kitchens, bathrooms and toilets, while a substantive amount of
repair is required to repair the damage of their houses, mostly on roofs.
“Out of the 122 households, 100 kitchens were
destroyed, while the rest were partly damaged. Many households use bush
toilets, built normally with used iron sheets or tapolens. According to the
assessment: 98 percent of the toilets are destroyed. During 48 hours without
water, people’s lives were at risk of catching diseases, such as diarrhea.
“Families who lost their kitchens have no
cover over their heads to cook their meals, [so] they are cooking outside.
Families who don’t have bathrooms to use are using the sea to bathe, especially
families who don’t have water. Some families wait until it is dark before they
bathe, which is not very safe for women and young girls. Families who lost
their toilets said they either use their neighbors’ toilets or they go to the
bush, and even the beach if they live near the beach. . . . Women and girls do
not feel safe anymore at night, especially when they have to find a toilet to
use or even wait to have a bath when it is dark.”
Rebuilding with scraps: “Of the families that have lost their roofing and even walls,
most of them use back their own iron roofing or find other roofing, which has
been taken in by the cyclone. All the iron roofing that they collected were
bended, which they had to straighten them with hammer. Apart from collection of
items after the cyclone, which they can use to replace their roofs and walls,
the families confirmed that they will need [more] corrugated iron sheets. Most
of these families don’t even have paid jobs, which already are elevating their
level of stress about not being able to find replacements for their walls and
roofing.
“When asked about what materials they need to
use to repair their houses, the following materials were mentioned: corrugated
iron sheets, cement, nails, tapolen, timber, Masonite, hand saw, jig saw,
circular saw, hammer, nails, knifes, spades, croupa [farming tool] mesh wires,
water tanks, bench bars.”
Real stories: “Mrs. Y confirmed 22 family members living with her and her 2
children since the cyclone. Her husband divorced her as soon as she gave birth
to their second child. ‘I don’t know what to do anymore,’ she said. ‘I don’t
have a job, but since my extended families came to shelter under my roof, all
their homes are gone! I can’t even sleep well, as I worry about what my
children will eat. . . . I must find food for all of us.’
“Mr. X has 12 people under his roof to care
for, to make sure they sleep, eat and drink water and to help them get back on
their feet. ‘I don’t work; me and my family live from our garden,’ he said. ‘We
sell some of the vegetables at the market to make enough money to pay for soap
and candles. But now that we lost our garden, I told my children that we will
eat noodles but only once a day, as more meals will cause every one of us to
starve.’ ”