Editorial: Locals help in relief efforts

Bay of Plenty Times reporter Ruth Keber is pitching in for Vanuatu.

It's been a month since Cyclone Pam tore through Vanuatu leaving a trail of destruction.

Luckily, New Zealand escaped the worst of the cyclone, but it is still having an impact in different ways.

The Bay of Plenty is home to many seasonal workers from those islands who will be trying to support their relatives through the long process of rebuilding their lives.

It is a mammoth task.

Last week, the UN put out a plea for government-led relief efforts.

Vanuatu urgently needs funding to continue basic humanitarian relief efforts such as food, safe drinking water and shelter, according to the UN humanitarian mission helping the country respond to the effects of the cyclone.

The UN says 110,000 people have no access to safe drinking water - in some communities no sanitation facilities at all - and there are 6000 people still living in makeshift or temporary shelters in the most affected provinces.

In March, New Zealand boosted its aid contribution to Vanuatu to $3.5 million to help the cyclone-ravaged nation recover.

Bay residents are also doing their bit to help.

As reported in today's paper, more than 120 quilts have been patched in Tauranga for people in Vanuatu.

Nationally, up to 500 quilts are expected to be donated.

Quilt co-ordinator Caroline Mason said she thought about how she could help and decided to collect a bag of quilts to take to the Pacific nation.

Bay of Plenty Times reporter Ruth Keber has also joined 14 other volunteers who flew out to Vanuatu's Port Vila to get stuck in to rebuilding parts of Vanuatu's main island.

During her two-week mission she will remove rubble and debris, patch up houses with tarpaulins and rope, and help patch parts of a local hospital, a disabled persons' centre and two kindergartens. It is great to see Bay residents doing what they can to help the relief effort.