A Wellington telecommunications specialist with links to Samoa is to help rebuild part of Poutasi village on the south coast of Upolu - the area which took the brunt of last month's tsunami.
Oceanic Group director Locky Mulholland says the company has about 40 staff in Samoa and it wanted to make a contribution, so launched Project Heal and Protect, or Polokei Toe Fa'alelei Ma Puipuia.
He says, with the assistance of other businesses and friends and colleagues, the company aims to oversee the rebuilding of the Poutasi commmunity centre along with its sports fields.
Mr Mulholland says the first thing they will do is take a quantity surveyor, architect and engineer to the the site.
"They will first determine the clearing of the site and then start working with the village on the redesign. So we will make sure that culturally we meet everyone's needs and desires, and from there they will come back and we'll work up the drawings, and get underway hopefully in a couple of months to start pouring some bricks and mortar into place."
Locky Mulholland of Oceanic Group, who says they will also work with the Pacific mobile phone provider, Digicel and the Samoa Government, to install tsunami warning systems on their mobile phone towers around the country.
