Many thousand Fijians have been affected by the floods; over 11,000 have been forced from their homes or lost their livelihoods and the education of 10,000’s of children is under threat. As the waters recede, people will return to their homes and communities to face a long, slow rebuilding process. The number of people at evacuation centres continues to increase, and health authorities have expressed concern that overcrowding and unsanitary conditions will to spreading diseases such as typhoid.

On Friday the 30th of March, the Western Division of Fiji experienced some of the worse flooding in recent history. Today over 11,000 people are living in basic evacuation centres, their homes destroyed by flood waters. Thousands are without electricity and running water. Many people lost their livelihoods and homes in a matter of hours without warning. This projects helps supply immediate basic requirements such as food, clean water and shelter whilst assisting long term recovery efforts.

The project works with locally organizations and community groups to meet both the short term urgent, basic human needs and the longer term requirements for recovery. By helping to meet the short term needs, the project minimizes the longer term physical and emotional effects of the disaster. To allow the communities to recover rapidly however, assistance is needed to clean up debris and mud, re-build basic infrastructure and assist local businesses and suppliers to recover.

The project works with local organizations and community groups to provide for recovery projects, including: – Health initiatives to help reduce the opportunities for the development of water born diseases – Support the Evacuation Centre support in distribution of food and logistics – Support of both young and elderly community members – Village clean up crews – Rebuilding of schools and community centers – Business recovery support