After a natural disaster, citizens and friends far and wide have a natural feeling of urgency to help those affected. Our cyclone battered country was no exception. However, many are stuck to know exactly ‘how’ to help. Do you send money? Clothes? Food? If so then, who do we send it to and how can you be sure it gets to those who are in need? Taking a step back, how do communities and families prepare to help themselves after unprecedented flooding and gale winds? History will have us anticipate a cyclone every so often as a pacific island prone to such events. Logically, locals should be able to know on the top of their head what to do and what is needed during and after the cyclone.
For Rotary Club of Apia, one of Samoa’s small but more active charitable clubs, the rally of Rotary Emergency Recover Kits or ERK’s as it is called by members, arrived as soon as the flights were allowed back into Faleolo Airport. Over 200 ERK’s from Rotary NZ have been distributed to the devastated areas of Upolu affected by the worse flooding ever recorded in Samoa’s history. The first shipment of 100 ERKs were delivered on the 22nd December 2011 by volunteers to Ma’agao, Lelata, Fa’atoia all the way through to Aai o Niue, Levili and Mo’ataa. This was the area where some fourteen lives were taken and over 100 homes were destroyed. The second shipment of another 100 ERK’s were delivered to the southern rural region of Upolu to Siumu, Maninoa, Mulivai and all along the coast.
Submitted by: Phaedra Moors
For more on this story seehttp://rotarystories-nzandpacific.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/disaster-strikes-samoa-and-rotary.html
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