Conversation on aid distribution following cyclone Pam needed
A New Zealand company which says it had its offer of relief shelter for Vanuatu rejected by aid agencies following cyclone Pam says a conversation on how aid is distributed following disasters is needed.
Transcript
A New Zealand company which says it had its offer of relief shelter for Vanuatu rejected by aid agencies following cyclone Pam says a conversation on how aid is distributed following disasters is needed.
The managing director of Shelter Stations, Daniel Thompson, says when his offer of shelter was not taken up by aid agencies, he went to Vanuatu himself.
He says the company provided a semi-permanent meeting house, a church and some housing for the 120 people living on the island of Mataso, where two people died during the storm.
DANIEL THOMPSON: I watched that weather forecast of cyclone Pam and I saw it was going to be a big one, so I started contacting the aid agencies. So in the past, NZ Aid and Aus Aid had been very good in using our shelters but this time around it was a little bit different and we were pushed off to the NGOs like UNICEF and Red Cross and so on. It was an interesting experience for me, because UNICEF first of all said they didn't buy Australian made products, which actually scared me, because it's a regional problem and the need really was immediate. Red Cross said, yeah, they would take them, but once I gave them to them that I had no more control over it and they would do with it what they chose. It was just something purely personal and I thought I would do it properly. So I scratched around and found out that Mataso had a need, loaded up what I thought were the correct shelters, and in hindsight they turned out to be the correct ones, had them shipped out there, and then my son and I jumped on a plane and went over there. It was a complex logistical exercise to get them out to the islands. They had to load them onto long boats, hired three longboats, and off we went into the deep blue ocean and later that day turned up at Mataso.
MARY BAINES: You mentioned UNICEF wouldn't take your shelter because it was Australian made?
DT: What UNICEF said is that they buy, their head office buys it. They weren't even interested in it. So to me that was actually a little bit shocking, because if NZ and Australia are pushing aid into these areas, I think there's a moral obligation on these people to look to local providers and local providers that want to assist. Those organisations have grown big. And no one is really looking at the big organisations. The will have heaps of reports that will say yes, we sent 14,000 pieces of plastic that in their mind they sheltered 14,000 people but it's actually not like that on the ground. Those people in Mataso, when we arrived there, they live in very, very basic huts. And in some cases there was a woman there that just had nothing above her, there was nothing between her and the sky. That doesn't work.
MB: So you've just got back from Vanuatu?
DT: Yes I have.
MB: And what did you see? Has everyone got aid yet?
DT: Not at all. No. It's happening, but the priority for the aid agencies is now Nepal, because the crisis in Nepal is absolutely shocking. A month after, it took me a long time to get my shelters over to Vanuatu, end of the month to get them shipped there. I was amazed that an island like Mataso had nothing. The people still couldn't move back there. In fact they're moving back to the island this weekend because they now have shelter. I think there has to be a conversation about how we handle aid globally, and it really should be regionalised. We should look after the Pacific.
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