A second container for Vanuatu is loaded at the old dairy factory in Maungatapere. Photo / John Stone
A Northland family sending a second container of relief supplies to Cyclone Pam victims in Vanuatu may not have enough space to squeeze in all the donated items.
Gina Sammons' family is spending more than $4000 to send a 20-foot (six-metre) container to Lamine, a village about 50km from the
Vanuatu capital Port Vila, jam-packed with items. The load includes timber, trusses, corrugated iron, mattresses, couches, clothes, schoolbooks, laundry tubs and sinks, benches, gardening tools and tinned food. Generous Northern Advocate readers donated much of the haul.
"We may end up not taking some stuff because my dad has also got some items in Kawakawa and I think we'll have difficulty fitting everything in the container," Ms Sammons said.
It took her more than two months to raise about $4000 cash, with most donors providing household items rather than money. She will pay $1100 to transport the container from Whangarei to Auckland, between $400 and $500 to have the donated items fumigated, $1800 for shipping to Port Vila, $2036 for Customs clearance in cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu and a yet-to-be-determined amount for transportation to the village.
