Tommy - Further Arts and TEKS Supporting Vanuatu Voices in International Events (many more articles to link)

Kate - Vital Networks: the work of transforming experience into understanding

Article for Evening Standard - needs updating // recent KG edit // Tommy pls check & add ending and funding link that explains exactly where the funds will go

Can learning from evacuation help us meet the long-term?

This October the entire population of the island of Ambae in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu had to be evacuated after the Manaro volcano erupted. Now Tom Dick and Delly Roy Nalo, of the cultural change NGO Further Arts, describe their experience working to help ease the discomfort and fears of the evacuees arriving on the neighbouring island of Espiritu Santo.

By Tom Dick and Delly Roy Nalo

When the evacuees first arrived in the town of Luganville displaced people stretched across the town. The streets were filled with the blank stares of people with nowhere to go. The town’s limited infrastructure had been completely overloaded by the arrival of 9000 refugees.

Over the next few weeks 52 temporary camps were established. Basic provisions were met by government representatives who each day brought imported rice, canned meat, sugar and toilet paper. The Red Cross worked hard to supply extra food, tents and tarpaulins.

But the spirit in the camps was unsurprisingly strained and anxious. The heat and humidity were such that tents had to be abandoned by day and struggles and tensions were felt as those who had been evacuated were herded together regardless of their family connections.

That is where we knew our role would be. The team from Further Arts worked with the official disaster response personnel to engage directly with those now living in the camps. Every day we worked with a different family group, moving through the camps, listening to people and documenting their stories of resilience.

This is not a neutral activity: it is one of deep listening to record the concerns, worries and hopes of the refugees; communicating on how to avoid potential clashes and working together to resolve conflicts that become apparent in this process.

One of our team, Gina Kaltiplei, a young photographer and filmmaker, spoke to a mother with six children staying in the camp near a church in the Chapuis area of the town.

What she heard was of the exhaustion following the trip from the island and the fear of what had happened to all that had been left behind on Ambae. The family had left all their possessions and livestock on the island. They were frightened – and felt isolated and confused as they could not get the answers about what was happening.

Whilst international aid agencies rise to meet a need of food, water and shelter in a disaster, Further Arts recognises the additional need for emotional wellbeing. We understand the value of a local response and the need for privileging the voices of local people in the media. This is critical nurturing a sense of resilience and helping ease the negative impact disasters have on people.

In a crisis people can be reduced to numbers – the statistics of those who have been evacuated, the amount of families to feed, people who need medical care. And the stories told by the media are often stories of victimisation. By talking to people, getting to know them and by hearing their unique stories our team emphasis trust and communication strategies that the displaced people know.

This helps remedy the alienation unwittingly created by communications being badly received; for example, the official advice to people was to set their livestock free before they were evacuated. People followed this advice, only to return home to find their chickens, pigs and goats slaughtered by the dogs which went feral. A situation described by Chief Matthew from West Ambae, as “a disaster on top of a disaster”.

The evacuees not taken to Espiritu Santo, had a very different experience in the neighbouring islands of Pentecost and Maewo. They were hosted by families and not placed in camps, and many described it as like a visit to another family. This family feeling transforms the situation: being welcomed into a space of solidarity as a welcomed guest makes for a completely different evacuation experience. The work Furtherarts does recognises that adjustment to meet these difficulties is helped not only by having the practicals covered, but by the invisible glue that keeps community together – kinship, respect and solidarity. We know that creative organisations can nurture and support solidarity with creative communication: sharing information and amplifying the strength and resilience so it can be heard across networks of effected people.

We do not know the outcome in Vanuatu. After the islanders were repatriated back to Ambae the situation further deteriorated to the point where people do not feel safe. Evacuated families faced chaos back on the island: food gardens destroyed by the farm animals gone wild and ash destroying crops and contaminating water supplies. Now many people have given up waiting for a Government plan and they are self-evacuating – relocating to Pentecost, Maewo, Espiritu Santo and the capital, Port Vila.

Furtherarts, with the support and endorsement of the Ambae Council of Chiefs, the Penama provincial government and the National Disaster Management Office, are working with the people of Ambae to continue to document this unfolding situation.

To support Further Arts in facilitating communication with the communities evacuated from Vanuatu please go here (KICKSTARTER/ GO FUND ME? )