Rebuild Naigani Island Village, Tailevu, Fiji

Home to around 25 families with 20 children. It’s a quiet, fairly typical island village. Supplies are bought out by small fibreglass boats, sometimes a generator runs in the evening for cooking and lighting. Some villagers work at the resort, others the village gardens or fishing.

Saturday 20 March TC Winston struck at 7pm bringing huge waves and 300+km/hr winds.

Despite being in a sheltered bay, and having survived years of cyclones including Cyclone Tomas in 2010 (cat 4) a number of houses and the meeting hall were washed away. The remaining buildings were wrecked by the wind, rain and waves that left just three habitable.

Aid agencies have dropped some food including rice and tinned fish. Shelter, hygiene and keeping mosquitos carrying Dengue and Zika at bay is now the priority for the village leaders. The village is desperate for tools and building materials to start salvaging what they can and begin rebuilding to shelter their families. At present tools are in shorter supply than food.

Naigaini is just one of many villages in Fiji facing the aftermath of Winston. Similar stories are heard all across the region, I hope sharing our friend’s story of Naigaini can help the cause.

We are raising money specifically for tools and building materials. Getting a cement block to the village costs around NZ$2.50 per block. A typical village house needs 1000 blocks. $5,000 will buy blocks for two houses. Funds donated through this page will be provided directly to the Naigani Village Leaders for house building materials and tools.

Thank you for your support.