Help people affected by Cat 5 TC Lola in Vanuatu

Hi,

My name is Stuart Auld.

I was raised in a remote part of Vanuatu, in the South East corner of the island of Malekula and came back to Australia to go to high school. I am in Vanuatu regularly and still consider Vanuatu my spiritual home and some of the local families there have ceremonially adopted my family into theirs and vice versa.

I'm raising some much needed funds to help the people of South East Malekula. They were impacted yesterday by Tropical Cyclone Lola, which became a Category 5 storm before it made landfall.

There is still not very much information out of there yet because the networks are in varying states of repair but there has been devastation of people's houses and most importantly, their gardens. It's a subsistence lifestyle there, with no electricity, no refrigeration and very low income. Once the tops are broken off the plants (yams, manioc, bananas etc), the tree dies. This means a large part of their diet is gone for at least 6 or 9 months.

My aim is to buy some tents for shelter and try and get some staple supplies such as rice and tinned fish from outlets in Port Vila and get those on a boat to Malekula.

Time is of the essence. Everything is either soaking wet or blown away. School books, bibles, bedding. Just imagine waking up today with the walls and roof gone off your house. It's difficult to think of.

I have family in Port Vila who will co-ordinate the purchase and distribution of the things we can source. Every cent of the money raised will be going to the families that need it. They are also very community minded, meaning that no-one in the villages will miss out.

Please help with anything you can. I know money's tight at the moment so any amount you can spare would be appreciated.