Message from Tahnia Cook...
Tuesday March 24, 2015

General Overview:
We spent the remainder of the money from our restaurant to buy 10 x 25kg bags of rice and other essential food items and handed it out to the surrounding villages.

Many houses were knocked down and roofs disappeared. They have already started rebuilding and for many homes, this happened quickly and people are back in their houses.

Every garden has been destroyed in every village out our way but many animals are still standing.

We are organising to buy a shipping container as soon as we can raise enough funds and to fill it with all items listed below. It will be a 40 foot container, so we will need to think about future developments such as schools/medical centres that we can also start putting supplies into the container.

My focus has been on ensuring basic needs are met first in surrounding villages.

The rebuild will be a massive task but we have spoken with the local chiefs and we have already come together and will put together 3 construction teams who will go into our close villages (matarisu, taka & epule for now) and help with the rebuild of restaurants, shops, schools, churches and the worst hit homes. We have a builder arriving tomorrow who will help with the planning of construction, we are trying to organise bulldozers and other machinery and then looking to places like wilko to help provide materials on credit until we can start raising the money to pay for the goods and also wait on the container which will have all sorts of goods loaded onto it including solar panels already donated.

At this stage, any funds you can raise will help us greatly to go towards food, protective equipment and building materials.

List of items needed
Medical supplies...
specifically:
- large, tough band aids
- antibiotics
- antibacterial creams
- gloves
- gauze swabs, cotton balls etc
- cold & flu treatment
- hydration/diarrhea stop treatment
- eye infection
- muscle pain
- treatment for large boils
- bandages for sprains

Clean up
- boots
- shoes (especially for children)
- protective clothing, even just long pants and shirts
- hats
- protective glasses & sunglasses
- workers gloves
- sun cream

Rebuild
- tarps
- loads of tin
- concrete
- timber (every kind)
- nails & screws
- watertanks
- solar
- wire for fencing

Other items
- blankets
- pots & pans
- cutlery
- plates & cups

...every basic living item has been washed away in the storm surge.

Please help the people who have welcomed so many Australians to their shores by donating to the “Good 4 Global” Campaign. Be assured your support will be felt in the most needy areas.
Donate here