4.8.16 | In February, cyclone Winston (category 5, highest at scale) hit Fiji and left serious devastation. The Fijian communities the ZMT works with were also greatly affected by the disaster. To help the Fijians, ZMT employees have donated more than 1.200 Euro.
Akuila Cakacaka, PhD candidate at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) has just returned from Fiji, where he did an adaptive capacity assessement to see how the communities dealt with the aftermath of category 5 tropical cyclone Winston which hit the island state back in February killing 44 people and causing severe destruction.
The cyclone was the strongest ever recorded in Fijian history and also seriously affected village communities on islands where the ZMT does a lot of its research.
As news of the disaster reached ZMT staff members a collection was started for a donation to the islanders and more than 1,200 Euro were contributed by ZMT staff.
During his recent trip to the South Pacific, Fijian-born Akuila Cakacaka visited the affected communities to hand over the donations to the village chiefs of Tuatua and Nakodu (both Koro Island) and Natokalau village (Ovalau Island).
He says: “The villagers were overwhelmed by the gesture and sent their love and thanks back to the ZMT employees. In Tuatua they are planning to use the money to rebuild their church which was completely destroyed by the cyclone.”
During his studies the social scientist found that the communities have managed by using whatever was left by the cyclone to build a shelter for their families. Food assistance and temporary shelters provided by NGOs, foreign aid and government has helped the families endure the past months.The government of Fiji have provided help in giving ,000FJD worth of housing materials to families whose house have been completely destroyed by the cyclone. These villages are coping well but the rebuilding process will take more time and effort.
