Vanuatu Church Leaders Detail Community Needs After Cyclone Harold

“We have lost lots of things during the category 5 cyclone,” Rene M. Tarohati, president of the Luganville Vanuatu District of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reported this week.

“It’s the worst that has ever happened to us,” he said.

"96 houses belonging to members of the Church were affected. Food from gardens destroyed, and school buildings down."

President Tarohati says that families are receiving support from the Church with respect to food, emergency accommodation and materials to build homes, but there are ongoing needs.

He says the most urgent needs are food, tools, volunteers to help with the clean-up, clothing, school materials, and vegetables to plant to restart home gardens,

Church leader in Malekula, Louisino Leetham, reported that "the area that is most damaged by the cyclone was the northern part of the island where gardens are mostly damaged with water."

People in the area "will be lacking of food mostly because the only source of food is from their gardens, but due to the cyclone, nothing is left," he said.

President Leetham continued: "They will start planting but for three to four months while waiting for the crops to grow, they are worried and not sure how they will survive."

He says that most houses are left without roofs and some are damaged in other ways.

Latter-day Saint Charities representatives in New Zealand and Vanuatu continue to work with government and other groups to assess needs and organise aid shipments.