Help for the wider Ruben family after Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu

Jinny has just returned from a week in Port Vila, Vanuatu and had the chance to visit the family at Bladinere and see the progress made with the use of the ‘Give a little’ funds first hand.

Fantastic progress has been made.

At Bladinere, Uma Alice’s family’s replacement dwelling (a four roomed concrete brick structure) is well on the way to completion. Give a little funds have helped to purchase the wooden beams, the roofing iron and lay the concrete foundation. The family are funding the bricks for the walls and providing the labour. The family are currently living in a shelter on the land.

At the other family land, a foundation for a house for two of John’s sisters has been completed (Flora and Mary and their families). The framing work is now being done. Give a little funds have purchased the wood and paid for the foundation. The family will clad the house and roof it.

Jinny was able to catch up with a friend who informed her that ‘Save the Children’ fund were rebuilding 60 houses across Tongariki and Tongoa: awesome news for a community devastated by the cyclone.

The Rubens house, still habitable, has been put last on the list but is still requiring repairs. The glass doors (smashed during the cyclone by the neighbouring church iron roof slamming into them!) still need to be replaced so the house is not currently weather proof or secure! The house used to be surrounded by a verandah with louvres which were ripped off during the cyclone and have not been replaced. Jinny is looking forward to getting these jobs started on when they get home.

General impressions from Jinny in Port Vila: Jinny was overjoyed to see the fruit and vege market tables (a down-town institution which provides fresh locally produced food for all of Port Vila) laden with food again. She was also heartened to see the greenery returning to its tropical lushness in the midst of much of the destruction. Many of the big trees were ripped out during the cyclone, so it is wonderful to see replenishment and plant life returning and regenerating.

Jinny and family are booked to return to Vanuatu on July 11th, after completing the school term in Christchurch with Jane and family. Jinny can’t wait to get home and return to some ‘normality’ and get her teeth back into daily life in Port vila.