Cyclone Pam one month on - Are we doing enough?

As rain began to lightly touch my roof the other night I was first filled with relief.

It’s almost a month since Cyclone Pam and since the pelting rains brought with her, we have rarely had a drop since.

The lush, bright green tropics of Vanuatu were transformed into a plantation of brown and leafless twigs.

Vanuatu normally looks like an oasis – now parts of it resemble a parched desert.

The rain I thought will bring new life, green shoots, small leaves of hope and new beginnings.

Rain will fill depleting water tanks.

And as my mind traced the new landscape of sparse tress lined up like precarious match sticks, it also racked the stories I had heard throughout the past weeks. Including the stories of whole villages left homeless.

All of a sudden it was not relief I was feeling, but dread.

And that burning question; Are we doing enough?

Rain, even light rain is bringing heartache to families who have lost their homes in Cyclone Pam.

A drive to communities shows a rainbow of varying blue tarpaulin roofs patching up homes and trying to keep the few possessions people have left dry.  

Joseph told me that his Uncle and Aunt who had been left homeless from Cyclone Pam were now staying with him, and when it rained the 8 people in his two-room house huddled in a corner that didn’t get too wet.

For those who didn’t completely lose their homes, damage to structures like roofs was widespread.

But Joseph’s village about an hour drive from Port Vila, needs rain, water tanks are standing, but they are getting low.

The double-edged sword of rain post Cyclone Pam is symbolic of just how complex an emergency response is.

There are few black and white answers, just like if I tried to answer if Vanuatu needs rain right now.

People need help and assistance fast, but it also needs to be coordinated to ensure aid is most effective.

The people of Vanuatu need immediate supplies like access to safe shelter, but they also need long term assistance to help rebuild their lives and livelihoods like replanting their gardens.

Our staff need to work harder and longer hours than ever before, at the same time many have lost their own homes and dealing with their own traumatic experiences.

The response to Cyclone Pam needs to be large because of the enormity of devastation Cyclone Pam brought, and with that means there is a large number of experts in Vanuatu right now helping plan the response, but these experts have never been to Vanuatu, let alone worked here before. Vanuatu needs their help, but it can be hard for help to come when people don’t have the time to understand and learn about the context of development in Vanuatu.

Nothing about the response to Cyclone Pam is simple.

So are we doing enough? It is a question I ask myself every day. It was a question I asked before Cyclone Pam and certainly one after – because when you work in places that have a multitude of issues like malnutrition, gender-based violence, low levels of literacy, there is always something more to do.  

But right now aid agencies like World Vision and the Vanuatu Humanitarian Team are doing all that they can – we’re distributing household kits with items like axes and spades and hammers so people can rebuild their homes, we’re distributing tarps so people who were left without homes can shelter from the rain, we’re working closely to support the government as they distribute essential food to whole villages, we’re distributing hygiene kits with basic items like soap to help stem the spread of disease like diarrhoea. And I have seen these basic items make a difference to families already.

I don’t think aid workers ever feel like they’re doing enough, but right now as I reflect on the massive effort of my colleagues and peers around the country I know we’re doing all that we can to make sure that that we’re not just doing enough, but that we’re doing our best effort possible for the people of Vanuatu.