Earthquake Relief.
$9,876.13
Background:
On December 17th, the capital city of Vanuatu, Port Vila, was struck by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake. There has been considerable damage throughout the capital and adjacent communities: over 10 buildings have either collapsed or are no longer structurally sound, which includes the hospital where triage tents have been set up outside the rubble. There have also been reports of several landslides, some of which were fatal.
Our Grantee:
After much discussion and thought, Friends of Vanuatu decided to make a donation to ProMedical, a charitable organization that provides medical and rescue services in Vanuatu. The staff and volunteers of ProMedical and their partner organization ProRescue played a significant role in the first response just after the earthquake struck. The money you helped raise is being used to purchase a new defibrillator as the two units they previously owned were destroyed during the earthquake. The unit they will be purchasing is quite an advanced piece of medical equipment. Not only can it restart a patient’s heart, it can monitor vital signs like blood pressure and dissolved oxygen allowing their medical team to provide necessary life support treatment during a medical emergency.
CYCLONE HAROLD GRANT.
$3,150
Background:
On April 3rd, 2020, just one month after Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic forcing Vanuatu to close its borders, a staggering category 5 cyclone caused massive destruction, particularly in the northern islands. Friends of Vanuatu, newly incorporated the same month, launched our first campaign to raise funds to support the recovery efforts of the impacted communities.
We are pleased to have raised over $3k from our donors, including the generous support of the WILMA organization that provided $1,000 in matching donations.
With no Peace Corps volunteers in the field, the Friends of Vanuatu team relied on our networks to find and vet a locally-based partner that would direct our granted funds to address village-level needs.
Our Grantee:
We are proud to announce ActionAid Vanuatu as our partner and the recipient of a $3,150 grant. ActionAid will administer funds in support of two on-going projects:
1. School Library on Malo. A portion of the grant will pay to transport a collection of books and the construction of bookshelves at a community library in a public school that had been partially destroyed by Cyclone Harold.
2. Women’s VSL Groups on Malo. The bulk of the grant will provide micro-grants to Village Savings & Loan (VSL) groups. These are currently existing women’s groups under the leadership of ActionAid. They have the function of providing women the resources to launch income-generating activities which will help develop the economy of their community. Additionally these groups provide the women training in financial literacy, leadership, and enterprise.
