It was brought to my attention recently that Fiji was recently slammed with some horrible floods. Somehow, I didn’t run across this via any of my daily news sources (and believe me, I’ve got a ton of those). A friend of the network from Fiji actually contacted us about the floods, writing, “I am sure you have heard about the recent devastation in Fiji due to severe flooding. Many people have suffered and lost personal belongings when their houses went underwater.” Doesn’t sound like fun.
If you’d like to help them out, you can contact us through the comments or through the contact page linked at the top of our website, and we can get you in touch with our friend there for more details on how to donate. Below are some more details from our friend, including photos and some of the items folks there are now in need of:
One of the worst flooded areas is a place called Nawaka village close to Nadi town. This is where one of the ladies I work with lives, together with her husband who is blind, one of her daughters, 2 grandchildren and a nephew. Their house was submerged by almost 2 metres and they have been living in a local primary school with many other families for the past week.
I have attached some photos of the mud that was left at their house after the flood waters resided. Most of the photos are from the outside of their house as it was too dark inside to get good images. It has taken many days to wash the mud out using buckets of water from a nearby drain… and the cleaning will continue for quite some time.
Luckily they managed to salvage some washable items from the kitchen cupboards and we were able to hand scrub quite a few clothes using a fridge on it’s side (which conveniently floated from somewhere and landed near their house).
I have also attached a photo of Ela with her daughter and grandson as well as one of myself with Ela’s husband and a new grandchild, these were taken last year.
The people of Fiji are incredibly resilient and still manage to smile during this difficult time. There are many families that will need help to enable them to get their lives back to normal. If you or anyone you know would like to assist these lovely people to buy new mattresses, pillows, sheets, food and whatever else they might need please contact me for bank details. Any amount will help, even $20 can feed a family like this for a week.
Much love from Lee 🙂
Currently working in Fiji