Pacific Pathways

Cyclone Judy followed by Kevin caused major devastation across Vanuatu. Families have lost everything, please can you help ?

Canterbury

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Pacific Pathways are helping the people of Vanuatu to recover after not one but two cyclones made land fall last week ( March 2023).

David and Sue Mitchell are the founders of Pacific Pathways and have been helping the people of Vanuatu since 2010. In 2015 we relocated to Vanuatu so we could help with the rebuild and recovery after cyclone Pam in 2015. Our work continues here as we develop new initiatives to help the people of Vanuatu after another not 1 but 2 cyclones in 3 days.

We live on Aore Island, and in Apri 2020, we experienced cyclone Harold a category 5, first-hand.

We understand what the people of Vanuatu have experienced, and it was truly frightening. But our thoughts through the night were about concern for our friends & their families living in the villages nearby.

Pacific Pathways focus is on helping the families, who have lost everything overnight. We ask that you take a moment to think about losing everything:

You have no resources to rebuild your home, your garden is flattened and you have no food to put on the table, you have lost your roof which was your catchment for water. You have no money!

We are currently focused on helping the people of Futuna Island in south Vanuatu. We are asking for your support, so we can continue our work here to help the communities to rebuild and recover after these devastating events. Here is the link:

https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/futuna-island-in-vanuatu-faces-total-devastation#!

We thank you for your support, this is greatly appreciated

About our Charity

Pacific Pathways is a registered charity. We have been helping in Vanuatu since 2010, with a focus on education, as we believe all children deserve access to a quality education. More recently we have developed community initiatives to help the ‘Families First’ with a focus on: Food/Water/Shelter.

You can learn more about our story on our website.

The funds raised through Give a Little will be used 100 % on our recovery/rebuilding projects Vanuatu.

More about us

About our charity -

Pacific Pathways have been helping in Vanuatu since 2010, with a focus on education, as we believes all children deserve access to a quality education. We also help in response to major disasters to help communities recover & rebuild.

Other page links

'Families First' gardens are now flourishing and green 5 October 2020

Pacific Pathways – ‘Families First’ initiative

Helping the families on Aore recover after cyclone Harold with their immediate needs: Food, Water, Shelter

Aore Island – Food security

As part of our Families First initiative we distributed local vegetable cuttings, seeds for other varieties of vegetables & garden tools to help the families on Aore re-establish their gardens.

It is now 6 months since cyclone Harold, and we are noticing a significant transformation to the landscape from ‘flattened & brown’ to ‘flourishing & green.

Last week I visited the communities on Aore to see how their gardens were ‘growing’. Have a look in the gallery to enjoy the photos of the now flourishing gardens.

Many of the families live up on the escarpment plateau because it is cooler and more importantly the soil is rich and fertile. In only 6 month’s they have flourishing gardens and the banana trees are fully grown, but we are still waiting for them to bear fruit. It has been a long six months of limited fruit and even now we need more sunny days for the fruits to ripen.

We are also finding pumpkins & pawpaws everywhere, 'baby’s of cyclone Harold', they werent planted but they are growing wild everywhere.

We have been lucky as we have had rain througout the 'dry' season, so everything is growing so well, that I am hearing stories of famlies, sharing their extra vegetables.

In preparation for our next cyclone season we have been talking to the communities about ‘preparedness’. With a cyclone we do get warnings so we are talking about protecting their gardens as best they can & to cut & store cuttings for replanting should their gardens be damaged by the cyclone.

Thank you all for your support and donations. Together we have been able to help the people on Aore recover after cyclone Harold.

Pacific Pathways, helping those on the path less travelled.

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