On March 14, 2015, Cyclone Pam pummeled the small island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. The worst cyclone on record left thousands of people without shelter, food, or drinkable water. The Red Cross estimated that at least half of the country’s population was left without housing, and the cost of a new house was out of reach for the majority of citizens.
With help from our network of donors and local advisors, Global Greengrants Fund sent relief funds for temporary shelter, food, and water to villages on the island of Erromango, as well as support to help communities rebuild.
With a $5,000 grant, the villages of Ipota, Tuwit, and Norah built durable structures that can stand against future category five cyclones and serve as evacuation centers to safeguard the communities.
In Ipota, the grant went to buy iron roofing for a Junior Secondary School building in Ipota village. For a year prior to construction, children sat in tents in extremely hot conditions; now they can further their education in a proper school building. The same grant also helped people build a church in Tuwit village, and a home for a disabled elderly man named Rueben Navlar in Norah village.
Not only did the funding help people build sturdy structures that can withstand future storms, but it also helped the community access high-quality construction materials such as iron and timber that are hard to come by in the area.
The organization responsible for coordinating the project, Williams Memorial Missionary Training Institute, reports that everyone in the community has benefited, especially women:
“The significance of the project has impacted the lives of every sector of the community and we have witnessed women leaders in the communities stand up to voice their appreciation and support to the rehabilitation project…Traditionally women in the remote and rural communities do not have a place in the decision making of the running of the community but this has not been the case recently when women stood up in front of the community leaders to express themselves openly in support of the Global Greengrants funded projects.”
Moving forward, Ipota and Williams Memorial Missionary Training Institute will continue to rebuild, finishing the walls on the school and helping with other necessary relief efforts.
We’d like to extend a big thank you to our generous supporters who enabled us to respond to this urgent situation, and help those on the ground in a timely and effective way.
Photo Credit: Phillip Capper/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Williams Memorial Missionary Training Institute