Transcript
BETTY HAFOKA-BLAKE: What we found in the homes and families we went to, that there is a lot of people that are not happy. They feel depressed, they are feeling anxiety because of the great loss. Some of them have lost their building, completely damaged. Some have partly damaged and some were quite alright, however the feeling of [being] depressed and anxiety is still with them because according to most of the clients we visited, they had never experienced such a cyclone. Some of them, when the warning came on the radio, they took it forgranted because they felt that 'oh we are so used to having a cyclone' but little did they know it would go to the extreme it went to. So some of them are still at mourning. There is still a big loss, there is still a longing and there is still waiting, what can be done next.
KORO VAKA'UTA: You mention that they are wondering about what next, what is the next phase now?
BHB: The next phase is they're waiting for rebuilding, for maintenance. They are waiting for their relatives overseas to help them but most of them are waiting for government. We went out to them before the disbursement of funds and some of them were waiting to see what would government do to them. After we went to them, then the government went out to send funds to families but that's what they were waiting for. And even now, because we are still providing services to them up to date, the funds they received, I'm afraid some of them were not able to do a lot with it.
KV: Now you will also be looking at, with this new funding, helping with disaster awareness so for the future people can be more prepared.
BHB: Yes because that was the missing gap with our psychosocial training. So we are now looking into going out to see how best we can work with families to be more prepared. Some of them didn't have any radio. Some didn't prepare any water. Some they didn't quite forecast how secure or how well the building would be, so we want to see how can we look into that. Even foodstuffs, even lights, so there was a lot of unprepared families who have come across the great disaster of Cyclone Gita so that's where we come in to be more prepared at all times. Even we are going to add on a 72 hour bag with ready clothing and foodstuffs and things that will be needed during the disaster.
