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"As our plane descended into Port Vila, I caught glimpses of the islands that make up Vanuatu between perfectly formed clouds, which looked still, as if in a painting — the blue of the ocean a calm turquoise canvas beneath. The islands themselves looked ravaged, trees torn and broken and houses left without roofs or walls. I found myself imagining how different this view would have been just a week before, on the eve of the biggest cyclone to ever hit the Pacific."
Lisa was heavily pregnant when Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu. She and her husband decided to leave their home though and take shelter in a nearby church with some of their neighbours. They didn’t believe their house could withstand the storm. And they were right.
You’re powerful as a consumer – what you choose to buy shapes the world we live in and can literally change someone’s life for the better. Fair Trade doesn't just guarantee a farmer gets paid properly for their hard work. It can also build schools, medical centres and water pumps – helping people lift themselves out of poverty.
Just days after the President of Vanuatu almost broke down as he spoke of the devastation that Tropical Cyclone Pam had inflicted upon his nation, the mood is bittersweet at the closing of the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Sendai, Japan.
Today is National Close the Gap Day, an important day to make your voice heard. With adequate funding, Aboriginal health equality is possible by 2030. Join the thousands who today, are demanding Indigenous health equality within a generation.
As aid begins to reach the hard hit Vanuatu islands of Tanna and Erromango, aerial assessments of other islands show residents signalling for help using mirrors, or by marking out large white "H's" on the ground.
Colin Collett van Rooyen, Country Director of Oxfam Vanuatu remarks of the resilience of the people in Vanuatu as they face an extreme challenge in Cyclone Pam: "Their absolute resilience clear as crystal on what was otherwise a dark day. Muted smiles when any form of smile would be near impossible for most. Tears too, but hugs – tight embraces of personhood. Being there and being with each other for each other."
What do you call a plan with no agreement on how to finance it? In the US government, the nasty epithet for such a thing is an “unfunded mandate.” In other spheres, there are simpler descriptions: incomplete, incoherent, and irresponsible.
More Oxfam Humanitarian Emergency responders have flown to Vanuatu this morning as the unconfirmed death toll from Cyclone Pam begins to climb. Oxfam Country Director in Port Vila, Colin Collett van Rooyen, said the situation in Vanuatu was increasingly grim.
