Rebuilding Lives in Solomon Islands
Playing the guitar and singing in the evening is something that most young people in the Solomon Islands love doing. There is laughter and an exchange of what took place during the day, of what was heard and who was seen. But now things have changed. Houses have been destroyed. Personal belongings lost. Friends and relatives are nowhere to be found. There is no sound of laughter or singing. Around 7.40 a.m. on Monday, 2nd April 2007 three tidal waves of up to nine meters high hit several islands in Western and Choiseul Provinces of Solomon Islands within 30 seconds. Just before this an earthquake measuring 8.1 on Richter scale hit Ghizo Island. Gizo is located 350 km north west of Honiara, the capital city of Solomon Islands. The earthquake was accompanied by landslides and several aftershocks that lasted for four weeks, some measuring as high as 6.4 on the Richter scale. What people say… A story is told of a six-year old girl who was with her physically disabled mother on a wheel chair. She tried to push her mother to higher ground and she could not. Her mother told her to take her handbag and run for her life to the higher ground. She told her she had nothing to give her for her life except what was in her handbag. The girl took the handbag and ran. She turned to look back and saw her mother being carried away by the rolling waves, never to see her again. When the girl opened her mother’s handbag, there was nothing except a Bible. The girl has been taken to her father in Honiara.” (Story told by UNICEF Emergency response team in Ghizo Island – Adi, Mona and Grace) “We were outside our house in Niumanda village when a wave came in. I told my wife to get hold of the young children and run to higher ground. I got hold of our young daughter and started running. The wave came again and my older son climbed to the top of a coconut tree and started calling me to give him his younger sister. Before I could doanything the wave took her out of my hands…we never saw her alive again. We searched for her body among the debris that day. We were later told of a baby’s body near Gizo Town. We went to see it and the body was of our daughter.” (Former driver Gizo Hospital, Niumda Camp, Ghizo Island, April 19, 2008) The tsumani caused mass destruction. Houses, schools, churches, shops, toilets, water sources and other structures for livelihoods were destroyed. People were displaced and helpless. The combined effects of the earthquake, tsunami and other geological disturbances affected an estimated population of 40,000 people, of whom 21,000 were children. The tsunami killed 52 people, 26 children and 26 adults, from 10 villages. UNICEF immediately responded by providing temporary shelter (tents, tarpaulins), blankets, utensils, foods, water, medical services and aluminium water tanks. Schools were also set up in tents. Rapid assessments were done within days of the disaster. Efforts to bring the people of Gizo back to normalcy continue. Meetings were held between UNICEF and the Provincial Health Director and his team at Gizo Hospital in Western Province, in April 2008 to follow up and discuss further health supplies and help needed to get the people of Gizo back to normal operations. They identified the need for boats and engines for hard to reach islands; a laboratory for Taro Hospital; and additional funding to mould water-seal toilets that are in high demand after health promotion. UNICEF along with partners are continuing their support to help the people of Western and Choiseul Provinces, especially the children in trying to get back to normalcy. Continued support from donors and government is valued to keep up UNICEF Pacific’s work within the region to help children who are victims of such disasters.
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