Concerns for children in Fiji as slow recovery continues

Transcript

There are concern in Fiji for the plight of children as the country slowly comes to grips with the damage caused by Cyclone Winston. 

Many schools have returned to classes but in some remote parts, buildings are too damaged for classes to continue and it's too far for children to get to the next village. 

With the scarcity of food, some organisations have started to provide warm meals at schools.

Alex Perrottet reports.

In the hours and days after Cyclone Winston, the instinctive concern for the plight of children drove many to the town centres to seek help.  Vatiseva Naba walked to Rakiraki from her village as buses were not running.

VATISEVA NABA: "Totally the roof has gone off, toilets and bathrooms, nothing is left and even electricity has gone so we are without power now and we've got only a little bit of kerosene there so I came now to look for sugar and kerosene to get my little grandchildren to live."

On the other side of the country on Vanua Balavu, in Mavana village, Mere Nasi talks of how her two adopted children were in shock.

MERE NASI: "The children were crying, they were crying that morning, they were crying and they were saying 'I want to pee.' 'Pee here, we can't go outside.' Here in this lounge they just pee here. They were crying, the first time, I was telling these people I think saw the wind in my own eyes, I saw the wind you know swirling like this in my own lounge, oh very terrible, it was swirling like this."

Mere Nasi's neighbour Melini Nokati said the toll of not being able to lie down and sleep for the next three days due to all their belongings being soaked was just as bad as the cyclone itself.  Back in Rakiraki, the Sangam Fiji organisation has this week decided to cook warm meals for all school children.  Teams of volunteers are trying to source fresh vegetables despite the shortage.  The Secretary General is Damend Goundar.

DAMEND GOUNDAR: "Our first task was to make the children comfortable when they come to school and all that so at least they know they've got education kits and they have got lunch they can rely on and yes there are children who seem to be very happy in terms of, the sun is shining, they are in a playful mood and you find some who are a bit quiet and upset probably because of what happened so we have just got to keep on encouraging you know getting them back into enjoying life as they were doing previous to Winston."

Mr Goundar says most families have now moved on from the Penang Sangam High School which became an evacuation centre in the days after the cyclone. Some are being housed by other families or sheltering in other community buildings.  But in the coming weeks, those families and everyone else will feel the lack of fresh food.  In the interior of Viti Levu in Nadalei village, Teresia Cawai is a single mother bringing up three young children. She usually farms vegetables to feed them and sell to others, but as she explains, it's a dire situation.

TERESIA CAWAI: "I help my babies' clothes needs and wants.

ALEX PERROTTET: "And what happened to your crops with the cyclone?"

TERESIA CAWAI: "Oh all damaged, casava it's very hard, when you cook it's very hard, hard for us to eat. But we only have some rice, like that, flour, we can eat."

The Fiji government says two schools remain closed in the north - Navakawau District School on Taveuni and Sukanaivalu Memorial School on Yacata Island, due to the extensive damage.  Children in those villages are staying at home because the schools are too far away.  Save the Children New Zealand has been assisting its local partners since the cyclone hit. A child and family psychologist Melanie Patterson says toys, arts and craft supplies and school bags have just arrived in the North and Western divisions as well as the remote Lau group.

MELANIE PATTERSON: "Toys that children can play with together or individually. There's also art material because we know some children, they might be too young to talk about what they're going through or they might not be in a space where they're ready to talk about what they're going through. So just having access to art material and being able to draw things or to communicate in that medium is quite important."

Melanie Patterson says teachers will be feeling the stress as well and Save the Children is providing further training for them, as they will be on the frontline of efforts to help children along in the coming weeks.