Tongan youths show leadership post-Cyclone
Nuku’alofa: A group of youth volunteers in Tonga are doing their bit to rebuild the country post-Cyclone Harold.
Disaster resilience is one of the main jobs for the Community Integrated Vulnerability Assessment group or CIVA in the village of Fasi.
Founder of CIVA, Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi, said the group started in 2017 and since then had been active in preparation for cyclones, help during the event and postclean up.
Mr Tevi said the young people assessed which families were in need of assistance in Fasi and then worked together to generate funds to buy supplies or prepare homes with corrugated iron material as shutters ahead of an approaching cyclone.
“We help the elderly people in our community, widows, large families with young children, the unemployed and those who have difficulties sourcing basic necessities such as water.”
“Before Cyclone Gita, we identified ten families that needed help. The youth were able to collect $TOP300 to buy items useful during and after a cyclone such as candles, canned food, biscuits, water and matches,” he said.
“This year we have identified just over 20 families that need the assistance.”
CIVA also helped those evacuating from their homes to evacuation centres and shifted items into containers at the church compound [All Saints, Anglican] so that they were ready to be used after the cyclone.
Eleni Levin-Tevi from CIVA said the programme was initiated to promote good leadership where young people are mentored and empowered to identify issues affecting their communities.