16 Oct 2009

Red Cross helps fishers and carvers in Samoa return to work after tsunami

2:39 pm on 16 October 2009

As more emphasis goes on the restoration of livelihoods in tsunami battered Samoa, the Red Cross is looking at helping fishers and carvers return to work.

A humanitarian worker for the New Zealand Red Cross, Douglas Clark, has just returned to the south coast of Upolu, which bore the brunt of the tsunami, and says the clearing away of the debris that's occurred in the past week has been phenomenal.

He says people are restoring their gardens while agencies like the Red Cross are looking at what they can do to get people fishing again.

Mr Clark says the population has always been heavily reliant on fishing.

"We are looking, in fact I am with a colleague at this very moment and we are looking at an overview of that. We'll be thinking about possibly providing things like fishing nets, possibly even boats and so forth. Another example is, there was a little community down here that pretty well provided all of - shall we call it - the tourist artifacts, the carvings and so forth - the sort of things you pick up at the airport - that came from this area as well, and they have lost all their tools so we may well be looking at helping them re-establish that sort of business."

A humanitarian worker for the New Zealand Red Cross, Douglas Clark.