Urgent Appeal for your Hindu Farmers Tropical Cyclone Winston devastates Fiji

URGENT APPEAL FOR OUR HINDU FARMERS
TROPICAL CYCLONE WINSTON DEVASTATES FIJI

Namaskar,

Once again on behalf of VHP Fiji, I would like to provide an update on the current situation in Fiji in aftermath the Super Tropical Cyclone that has destroyed thousands of homes.

On the day of cyclone, our volunteers in Savusavu district on the island of Vanua Levu bravely rescued more than 100 families and took them to an evacuation centre. Similarly, our team in Ba, on the main island, was busy coordinating with families, rescues operations, media and various agencies trying to provide support to evacuate families.

On the following day of the disaster, on Sunday 21 February we engaged our Hindu Emergency Aid Relief Team to provide immediate assistance required by many families that were stranded in remote places. Accessibility was restricted to do fallen trees, debris and power poles on the road. This did not deter the brave team from reaching out to the needy families with food, water and clothes. Since that day we have continued to provide food packs, clothes and medical assistance to more than 2,400 families. Our relief work is still progressing and we will reach out to 800 more families in the next few days. The real victims however, have been our Hindu farmers. They have completely lost their homes and crops. Many have survived on water for days before we reached them first with food supplies.

The Government has received million in aid but farmers have so far received very little. The Government has let people withdraw funds from their provident funds but farmers have no such savings. Government has no plans to build their homes either. VHP Fiji has been the hope of many farmers in dire need of help. There are thousands more to reach out and we are restricted with resources particularly money.

We have a plan to provide each farmer 10 sheets of 4m corrugated roofing iron. We need to supply to at least 800 farmers. The total cost of providing these would be USD 110,000/- [US One Hundred Ten Thousand Dollars] and it will be imported from China – unless we have a generous donor in Bharat to ship us the much needed roofing irons. We have approached Australian Aid and various other donors with no luck. Needless to say, Red Cross has been useless to the plight of our farmers despite being a single largest recipient of aid.

If you think you can assist by way of supplying shelter to these disaster stricken farmers or funding our project, please do let me know by email:president@vhp-fiji.org

In the meanwhile, please see the food pack distribution undertaken by our VHP team in Fiji by clicking on this link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10206068621102170&type=1&l=479e834702

We are hopeful that our Hindu brothers and sisters from around the world would respond to our plight for help.

Yours in dharma
Jay Dayal
President VHP Fiji
 
 

Shree Sanatan Dharm Kanya Pathshala
Ba Sanatan College
Ba Arya Samaj School

 

Govind Park Stadium
Hospital Site totally wiped off
Shashtri Memorial School

Source: World Hindu News (WHN)