School’s out: Cyclone Winston impacts education

Adi Dokoni, kindergarten teacher from Navitilevu village, with her daughters
 © UNICEF Pacific/2016/Sokhin

By Cifora Monier

Adi Dokoni, a 42 year old mother of three and a kindergarten teacher in Navitilevu village, Fiji, tells her children to be careful while they run around the debris left behind by Cyclone Winston. “Everything is damaged; our house and our crops,” she says watching her children move away from the sharp corrugated metal that lays on the ground broken and twisted by the storm.

“There is no school for the time being and we still have to rebuild our houses,” says Adi. “We don’t know how long it will take us. We don’t have money because the food we’d usually sell from our crops has been destroyed. That was our only way of getting money.”

Fiji after Cyclone Winston: “I told my family to leave everything”

Tiloko, his wife Leba and their children
© UNICEF Pacific/2016/Sokhin

By Neisau Tuidraki, UNICEF Pacific

In Yaqeta village, Yasawa Islands, 39-year-old Leba sits on a mat in the place where her family house stood, before it was destroyed by Tropical Cyclone Winston. She is joined by her husband Tiloko and their five children Adi, Makereta, Emosi, Waisake and Vasemasa, aged from 16 to just one.

“On the night of the cyclone we all stayed at home,” Leba says. “The wind got stronger and stronger, and then the breadfruit tree fell on top of our house and destroyed it.”

Families in Fiji pick up the pieces after Cyclone Winston

Tuvosa, 3, with his mother Kalisi, in their ruined home
© UNICEF Pacific/2016/Sokhin 

Natural disasters like Cyclone Winston in Fiji have the biggest impact on children, who are among the most vulnerable members of society. This was certainly the case for 3-year-old Tuvosa (pictured above) when the cyclone tore his family's house apart, on Viti Levu island. "We lost everything," his mother Kalisi says. "We don't have a house, and there is no food. During the cyclone me, mum and Tuvosa were hiding under the bed. My husband was holding the wall."

"When my soon realised what had happened to our house, he cried," she continues. "Since the cyclone, he has not been the same. Every time he comes back home he cries. He barely talks to us. I think it has really affected him."

Tropical Cyclone Winston leaves homes and lives shattered across Fiji

Makereta Nasiki, 13, sits in her now flooded bedroom
UNICEF Pacific/2016/Sokhin

By Donna Hoerder, UNICEF Pacific Islands

As Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Winston left Fiji on Sunday, thousands of families were braced for the after effects, including searching for loved ones, returning to and in some cases rebuilding their homes and beginning the huge task of clean up and reconstruction.

The most devastating natural disaster to hit Fiji in recorded history left no one untouched. All parts of the country experienced strong winds, tidal surges, flooding, power cuts and/or water cuts. Everywhere, children were among the most vulnerable and affected.

UNICEF spoke to children and their families across the country to understand the impact of the Cyclone on their lives.

Cyclone Winston: children react to the devastation

Communities across Fiji have been devastated by the strongest storm ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere and children will be among those hardest hit. Tropical Cyclone Winston has flattened entire villages with wind gusts in excess of 320 km/h and devastating storm surges and rains.

UNICEF has begun assisting those most affected. There are an estimated 400,000 people, including around 165,000 children, affected by the cyclone. Thousands of homes have been damaged. Hospitals, schools and water supplies have been hit hard, while damage to crops and livestock has cut off families’ food and livelihoods.

Some young Fijians share early accounts of the aftermath after a terrifying night sheltering from Cyclone Winston.

A helping hand for an 8-month-old survivor

8-month-old Nichola is one of the first babies in Vanuatu to receive nutrition supplements

 through UNICEF following Cyclone Pam. We visit him to see what difference they’re making.
UNICEF Pacific/2015/Berthe

I met Nichola for the first time when a nurse measured the circumference of his arm at Pango Community Centre in Port Vila, Vanuatu. I was relieved to see that the colour of the special measuring tape was green, meaning that Nichola wasn’t dangerously underweight.

Lessons in grief, hope and recovery from a seven-year-old boy.

Tavai Soalo, a facilitator in the UNICEF-supported Just Play sports for
development programme and Nalau.
UNICEF Pacific/2015/Berthe

“I remember Tavai. He came to my school and we played football”, says Nalau.

Tavai Soalo, a facilitator in the UNICEF-supported Just Play sports for development programme, also remembers Nalau. He was facilitating a Just Play session at Sorovanga School, Vanuatu, aimed at helping children to recover emotionally from Cyclone Pam, when Nalau shared his story. 

“We played games then I asked the children how they felt after Cyclone Pam” Tavai recalls. “I gently encouraged them to share their experiences, feelings, thoughts and even plans for the future.”

The tent that brought children back to school

Joana and Daisly used to miss school regularly before Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu. 
The unique experience of learning in a tent has brought them back. 
UNICEF Pacific/2015/Berthe

When Joana and Daisly share their experience of Category 5 Cyclone Pam, I can hear the horror of that night in their voices – voices that remind me of my two young sons and our own night of terror.

Seven-year-old Joana is from a small community in Port Vila. She was home with her younger sister and her parents when the cyclone hit Vanuatu with devastating force on 13 March 2015. She tells me the wind was so strong they had to shelter in a nearby shop after the cyclone ripped the roof of their house off. Fear still echoes in her voice when recalling the events of that night six months ago.

Champions for healthy schools

Nasautoka District School. © Akvo/2015/Stefan

It’s not something you might think about all that often – but the provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools can mean the difference for children between staying healthy and safe at school – or getting sick and missing important classes - or worse. 

A child who is not registered at birth is invisible

My Name, My Future: Birth Registration in Kiribati

Eight months pregnant when Cyclone Pam hit, mother to a beautiful baby now.

Wilma was eight months pregnant when Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu. Three months later, she and her new baby face the future together.

Learning to smile again after Cyclone Pam

Three-year-old Rachel just a day after Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam devastated Vanuatu.,
and three months on. © UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/McGarry

We first met three-year-old Rachel just a day after Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam devastated Vanuatu. Three months on, we go back to check in on her. 

Cyclone Pam three months on: A school on the road to recovery

Ellen, a 13 year old student from St Joseph school near Port Vila stands outside the tent
that has been her classroom since cyclone Pam destroyed part of the school. If not for the
shelter supplied by UNICEF, students would have been sent home on a rotating basis.
© UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/McGarry

Three months after Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu with devastating force, Vila North School is a study in contrasts. Children released for break scream with delight as they scamper from tents set up as temporary classrooms, past the destroyed parts of their school. Builders work around them, replacing the roofing on classrooms and rebuilding destroyed facilities as teachers plan their lessons from a temporary office inside a repurposed shipping container. Students and teachers can see the progress around them – but much remains to be done. 

The best kind of traffic jam

 Long line of pick-up trucks loaded with tents and other education emergency
supplies ready for distribution to 11,000 children in more than 120
cyclone-affected early childhood centers and primary schools

Normally I dislike traffic jams, but I couldn't be happier to see this one. It doesn't matter that it’s 30 degrees Celsius here on Tanna Island, Vanuatu and that I’m drenched in sweat; seeing a long line of pick-up trucks loaded with tents and other education emergency supplies ready for distribution to 11,000 children in more than 120 cyclone-affected early childhood centers and primary schools makes my day. 

A magic suitcase to bring back hopes and dreams

By Elodie Berthe -14 May 2014

After a short drive from the UNICEF office in Port Vila, through streets lined with homes and shops in various stages of post-cyclone reconstruction, we arrive at Fresh Wota Field; a big empty grassland with two goal posts. Small houses of different shapes and colours surround the young people engaged in an intense game of football despite the equally intense heat. 

We park under a tree to escape the heat and wait … and wait … for our scheduled rendezvous. We talk to the football players, make some phone calls and, just when we are about to leave, there they are; fifteen children carrying balls, water, a bright blue UNICEF bag and a big metal box.

Children of Fresh Wota, Port Vila, carrying the recreation kits distributed by UNICEF
© UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/Elodie Berthe 

UNICEF overcomes huge logistical challenges to get life-saving aid to Vanuatu

Warehouse workers erecting a temporary storage facility to store supplies UNICEF received
from a 100 metric tonne shipment that arrived in Port Vila recently. © UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/McGarry

Port Vila, Vanuatu - It’s all hands on deck as 15 warehouse workers heave, push, lift and carry boxes of emergency supplies that have just arrived in a 40-foot container at the UNICEF ware-house in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

UNICEF’s emergency responses in support of affected children always include a strong supply component and the response to Cyclone Pam, a Category 5 cyclone that devastated the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu a month ago, is no exception. Today, 100 metric tonnes of essential emergency supplies have arrived all the way from Copenhagen.

UNICEF working with partners to deliver essential water and sanitation supplies to cyclone affected families on Ambrym island!

UNICEF and Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) volunteers loading latrine squat plates to be delivered to communities on Ambrym island who lost their homes in Category 5 Cyclone Pam last month.
© UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/Hing

Port Vila, Vanuatu - UNICEF has partnered with a local NGO in cyclone-affected Vanuatu to deliver vital water and sanitation supplies to 555 households on Ambrym island. With UNICEF’s support, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is delving water, sanitation and hygiene kits (containing water containers, buckers, soap and water purification tablets), water tanks and latrine squat plates to communities on Ambrym island who lost their homes in Category 5 Cyclone Pam last month.

Educators and creative artists come together with UNICEF’s support to address children’s emotional wellbeing after Cyclone Pam!

Two of the workshop participants Alex and Angelina in the field doing photo shoots with the children
of Vila East primary school. © UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/Hing

Port Vila, Vanuatu - More than 50 professionals from diverse backgrounds in health, education and child protection are now well placed to help meet the psychosocial needs of children distressed by Cyclone Pam and its aftermath.

A cyclone-affected school welcomes children back to class.

Dorah James and her eight-year-old son, Daniel at Mele Maat Primary School, Efate Vanuatu. Their home was completely destroyed by Cyclone Pam but Daniel is keen to return to school as soon as possible.
© UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/Sokhin

First grade student Daniel Jojo (8) is pleased with the finished blue and yellow paint on his face and proudly shows it off to his mother, Dorah James.

Yellow and blue are the colours of his school, Mele Maat Primary, on Efate Island, Vanuatu. Today, less than three weeks after Category 5 Cyclone Pam badly damaged the school, completely destroying four classrooms, Mele Maat Primary has opened its doors once again to welcome students, teachers and fami-lies. The students have not been to school since Cyclone Pam struck so the school has organized a special event that they hope will help the children to recover emotionally and think of the school as a safe space for them to come, learn and play.