APNIC is collecting reports from our Members in the Pacific and other affected islands in the aftermath of the devastating Cyclone Pam.
Dean Pemberton and NSRC have developed a couple of coordination mechanisms: a website to coordinate offers of support for ICT recovery, and a mailing list where you can join the 33 people from around 10 organizations that are helping.
How you can help
- If you are interested in contributing to the disaster response, add your offer of technical assistance using the Help.Vu website. NSRC among others are helping to match offers of support with requests for help. Equipment, technical skills and funding are required.
- Vanuatu will need volunteers and assistance in the next few weeks. The extent of the damage in the outer islands is still not fully known but opportunities to volunteer will be available when it is safe to travel. If you are interested to help restore network infrastructure, please consider the possibility.
- Donate miles on your frequent flyer cards for volunteers to travel.
- Also needed are satellite phones that are live (with credit) with chargers and spare batteries. They are extremely necessary for aid workers traveling to the outer islands to relay reports, but there is not enough on the island.
- Share this with your contacts from manufacturers of power and wireless/network equipment in New Zealand or Australia. They might be able to donate specific equipment required to restore power supply or restore communication links.
Donating
If you are interested in donating for humanitarian relief, the following charities have been authorized by the Vanuatu Disaster Management Office:
Oxfam Australia – 1800 034 034
Australian Red Cross – 1800 811 700
Plan Australia – 13 75 26
Care Australia – 1800 020 046
World Vision Australia – 13 32 40
UNICEF – 1300 884 233
Save the Children – 1800 76 00 11
Adventist Development and Relief Agency – 1800 242 372
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.
Hi I run my own handyman services and do construction work too would like to know would i be able to give a hand developing, fixing or building things there? Please do let me know my number is 0413XXXXXX. God bless and have a wonderful day. Kirk
Hi Kirk,
Thank you for your kind offer of help. The best thing to do is visit http://help.vu/ and register there. This is a coordination point for many offers of assistance. They’ll be in touch once they have a better idea of what is needed where.
Kind regards
Siena
How do we do “Donate miles on your frequent flyer cards for volunteers to travel.”?
Dear Taiji,
Sorry for the late reply- we were just confirming with a range of airlines. If you want to donate air miles, we recommend you post your offer on http://help.vu/. If someone wants to take you up on the offer, you make the flight booking in their name with points from your own account, rather than trying to transfer points.
Kind regards
Siena