This Sunday, March 13, marks one year since the small island nation of Vanuatu was hit by category-five Tropical Cyclone Pam—the strongest cyclone ever recorded in the South Pacific.
With wind speeds reaching up to 350 kilometres an hour, Pam obliterated entire villages. It ruined buildings, destroyed houses, and decimated farms and food supplies.
In the after-math, Marists in Vanuatu and Australia banded together to help the people of Vanuatu rebuild their lives.
Leader of the Marists’ District of Melanesia, Brother Jean Marie Batick, reported that there were a number of severely-damaged schools within the Catholic network and he approached Marist Solidarity for their support.
We made an appeal to Marists at our Australian schools and other networks and raised nearly $50,000 to help our neighbours in the Pacific, during their time of dire need.
Brother Jean Marie is a Vanuatuan—or Ni-Vanuatu—and he is currently based in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.
He visited the Marist Solidarity team at the Marist Centre in Brisbane on January 12, along with 45 other young Marists from the Oceania region.
The week before Brother Jean Marie visited Brisbane, he was in Vanuatu and saw first-hand the progress that had been made.
He said work on affected schools was well-advanced and, at some sites, it had been completed.
He said, “In a country with limited resources for construction, and many demands on constructors after Cyclone Pam, this is an admirable result.
“The most promising news is that the kids are back in their classes,” Brother Jean Marie said.
He thanked Australian and European donors for their generous support.
Funds were distributed to help cover rebuilding costs at six locations: Saint Michel Technical College, on the island of Santo—a school where the Marist Brothers work; the Diocesan Training Centre at Lololima in Port Vila; the Marist Parish school in Paray; Montmatre High School in Port Vila—a college of the Freres de Sacre Coeur; Lowanatom Parish school in Tanna; and the Saint Jeanne d’Arc School in Port Vila.
If you would like to support the international aid and development work of Australian Marist Solidarity, please donate here.