Four students grateful to be home from Vanuatu [1]
Thursday, March 19, 2015 - 16:29. Updated on Thursday, March 19, 2015 - 17:13.
By Linny Folau
Four Tongan law students who arrived in Tonga today are hoping that government will assist the remaining Tongan students to return after Tropical Cyclone Pam devastated Vanuatu five-days ago.
Arriving at Fua'amotu International Airport, this morning one of the students, Esther Fifita ‘Aholelei stressed the importance of bringing home the other eight students they left behind. "We feel blessed to be brought back home for free but at the same time we feel really bad that we had to abandon the rest of our Tongan students. I hope what we say right now would be of much weight on whether they would also come back,” she said in tears.
The four women arriving at Fua'amotu International Airport this morning included three scholarship holders returned by NZAid and one who was privately paid for by her family to come home. Esther, along with ‘Ana Laulaupea’alu, ‘Emele Huni and Bernadette ‘Uta’atu were warmly welcomed by their happy families at the airport.
Bernadette said the eight remaining Tongan students are still living at the Emalus USP campus.
She described the poor conditions on campus. “The tap water is on and off, the electricity is off and the tank water for drinking is really dirty from the cyclone. There is still a lot of debris around from the cyclone and they are trying to clear it out,” she said.
After the cyclone hit on Saturday they had to wisely use the little money they had on them because they could not withdraw cash from the bank.
“We were living off the food stock that we had bought over the last few weeks, which we left for the Tongans, back there. I am glad to be back home and I hope the government will do whatever to help the other Tongan students who are still there,” she said.
Water shortage
An NZAid student, Esther, who returned home with her husband and two young children said students could still stay at the campus for now.
However, she reckoned for the long run it's unsure because they heard before they came there would be food shortages and the main supermarket in Port Vila is running out of water.
She said after the cyclone most of the classrooms were still standing although a few had been damaged.
“Compared to other areas in Vanuatu and the many families who lost their homes USP remains standing and we consider ourselves very lucky,” she said.
Esther said there are retail shops that sell water but they needed money to buy it.
“Some students have accounts with ANZ Bank ATM, which are still not working at the moment. We can boil the water on campus but then we need to money to buy the gas bottle,” she said.
The Tongan students have this week appealed for the Government of Tonga for assistance.
Bernadette said the cyclone was terrifying because they had to move three times from room to room. She stayed with Esther and her family. “It was because these rooms were not as safe as they thought it was, but we are here - so we are grateful for that,” she said.