This video shows photos of the survivors and destruction caused by the recent tsunami in Samoa. It also contains first-hand accounts of the natives, surrounding the event and relief work being done by SPBD and MicroDreams.

Friends,

It has been over a week since I last posted, but that does not mean that progress has slowed.  We remain fully engaged in the Samoan tsunami relief and recovery effort.

Our strategy, which was quickly developed in the days immediately following the tsunami, is three fold (one part relief, two parts reconstruction).  First we were determined to get immediate and helpful aid out to those who were the most severely devastated by the tsunami.  SPBD, along with several other agencies, played a critical role in this successful endeavour.  This phase of immediate relief is now drawing to a close. The government is now well positioned to directly help those who are without access to drinking water or proper sanitation and they are putting in the long term required infrastructure to support these people in need and have set up the short term systems to provide them with adequate access to drinking water and sanitation.  Most of the immediate health concerns have also been adequately addressed by the Red Cross and the government.

The next phase is to help families and communities to restore their devastated villages and to re-launch local village economies.  The United Nations Disaster Management Office has appointed SPBD as the head of the committee for “Restoring Livelihoods in Post-Tsunami Samoa”  There are several other agencies working on this committee with us including Oxfam, AusAid and the Asian Development Bank.

The first element of SPBD’s restoring livelihoods program is to launch a “Cash-for-Work” program in eight highly impacted villages.  This will involve:

1. Working with local villages to identify and scope out important projects that need to be completed to help restore each village.
2. Assembling local work-forces to carry out the work
3. Providing these teams of workers with the proper tools, equipment and management oversight and.
4. Paying the workers a reasonable wage at the end of each week for their efforts.

Essentially this program has two large positive developmental impacts:

1. It gets important clean up projects completed quickly, and
2. It helps to inject cash back into the local communities via earned wages so that the local economies can once again begin to function.

The second element of our restoring livelihoods strategy is to provide large scale re-financing facilities to families to help them rebuild their destroyed micro-businesses and/or homes.  This financing will get families back on track to being fully empowered to solve their own immediate income and housing problems. It also dovetails very nicely with the Cash-for-Work program. Local workers will gain an income and be able to support newly establish local businesses. Essentially we’re helping to re-launch entirely new local economies.

And so that is what we have been doing. The first two “Cash-for-Work” village programs will be rolled out this Monday (Oct 26^th). Perhaps that is enough for now.   I will continue to keep you updated as we move forward.  Once again, thanks to the hundreds of individuals who have supported SPBD’s efforts on the ground in Samoa through either of our major funding partners – MicroDreams (www.microdreams.org) and/or Mercy Corps (www.mercycorps.org).  Your support is making a big difference.

All the best,

Greg

Friends,

It has been an unforgettable week. As a starter, let me share this photo of the formally picturesque village of Lalomanu where SPBD once had 21 thriving micro-entrepreneurs.

The village of Lalomanu, Samoa is gone

Today we delivered aid packages to 102 stricken women in 15 different villages across the South East Coast of Upolu in Samoa (including in Lalomanu).  They were all extremely delighted when we showed up at their various places of encampment.

SPBD staff prepare an aid distribution

We delivered to each lady a 20 pound sack of rice, 24 cans of fish, a large bushknife, a bucket in which they can store water for washing, cooking and bathing, a wash basin, plates, cups, spoons, 24 liters of water, a box of mosquito coils, 10 boxes of matches, four toothbrushes, three tubes of tooth paste, soap, and ST$150.  In total this aid package was worth about ST$400 per person (or about US$160).  That is more than the average monthly income for an underprivileged family in Samoa.  And so these women were quite pleased when we arrived.

Greg hands a tsunami victim ST$150

The village of Saleapaga, where SPBD worked with 14 successful micro-entrepreneurs, appears to be relocating and the government of Samoa appears to be supportive.  While many of our ladies are living in quickly assembled homes of loose pieces of timber, tarps and mats, the government is at work trying to extend power lines to the area.  Hopefully eventually water and sanitation will also be brought to this area.  For now, these families are very much out in the wilderness and so we are pleased to be able to lend a hand.

Family's temporary living shelter in Saleapaga

Temp living shelter in the new Saleapaga

Greg & Ella listen to Aso who lost 3 children in the 9/29 Samoan tsunami

Earlier this week there was another massive earthquake in the region. (7.9 in Vanuatu).  This lead to a tsunami warning which required the entire nation of Samoa to evacuate to higher ground.  It was a fairly extraordinary experience watching (and participating in) the evacuation of the city of Apia.  Fortunately another tsunami did not show up but it did provide an opportunity to ensure that the tsunami alert system and the responses are appropriate.  On the unfortunate side, a few brave souls decided that this warning was the last straw and that they too have now decided to permanently move uphill into the bush.

Tomorrow, (Sat) SPBD will carry out another large scale aid distribution.  We’ll be visiting another 13 villages that have been severely impacted.   Next week we plan to start working with some of the more eager women to see if they are ready to start re-launching their micro business or re-building their home.  We are putting in place emergency financing packages for each of our ladies to help them do this.

Once again, my appeal, if you’d like to help, please forward this file or link on to others.

People can support our efforts online via:

www.spbd.ws or

www.microdreams.org or

www.mercycorps.org

Thank you to the well over 100 folks who have already donated so generously to support our efforts. That’s it for now.  Tofa soifua.

Greg

Friends,

Today was a very long day.  We visited with dozens and dozens of SPBD ladies who have been severely impacted by the Samoan Tsunami.  The stories they tell and their grief is extreme.  An SPBD member Ruta Sao, who has a small taro plantation, tells of losing four of her children (ages: five months, two, four and five) when the wave hit.  Each of their bodies has since been recovered and they will all be buried in the mass national funeral this Thursday.  Ruta is now living high up on a mountainside under a tarp held up by four large sticks.  She insists that she is not leaving.  In fact there is a whole enclave of people from Ruta’s village of Saleapaga who have now moved up there.  They all insist that they will never go back to Saleapaga.  And after experiencing such terrifying tragedy who can blame them? We will help her and the others rebuild new and safe homes on the hillside above Saleapaga.

The prime purpose for today’s activities was to individually assess each of the victim’s situations and to determine how we can best assist them.  People like Ruta are still grieving tremendously and perhaps what she needs most is time; and then some counseling and then some opportunity.  We are good at providing economic opportunity.  We hope to also link her and others with some charitable psychological counseling organizations that will be arriving on island in the next couple of weeks.

The village next-door to Ruta’s, Lalomanu, was also largely wiped out.  Thanks to a nearby off-shore island which bore the brunt of some of the wave some houses in Lalomanu were mercifully spared.  We had organized a group of 21 of our micro-entrepreneurs with whom we work in Lalomanu and were gauging very specifically how each was impacted.  One of our members, whom we had assessed as having been entirely spared from disaster, then burst into sudden tears and she began to tell us all of a heartbreaking story of losing a grip on her mother’s arm as they were escaping the wave and her mother was carried out to the sea. Her mother too will be buried along with Ruta’s children this Thursday.  The point is – homes can be replaced and businesses can be re-launched.  But people are truly precious.  And for this reason, all of these ladies, in this area, have been terribly, deeply and personally affected and so they all need our help.

The New Zealand Police arrived in Samoa over the weekend.  They have brought with them teams of trained dogs to help uncover the dead   My assessment is that they are doing a good job.  In addition to people, there are all sorts of dead fish, chickens, pigs, and other livestock lying about.   Now as one goes through the tsunami zone one sees many scattered piles being burnt.  I think this is helping to control the horrendous odor issue that I mentioned yesterday and will help contain the emerging health related issues.

SPBD is putting together aid packages to deliver to woman who have now literally scattered throughout Samoa.  We have already delivered to most a prepaid cell phone so that we can keep in touch with them. Cash grants will be a big part of the package.  These should go out later this week. The logistical issues are significant; however we have one of the best distribution systems in the entire country and so I am confident that we can pull it off.

I have taken heaps of photos and am trying to load them onto FlickR so that people can view them.  The internet connection here is very erratic and very slow when working.  So, getting these photos loaded may be a time consuming endeavor.  I’ll let you know when they are available for general viewing.

Once again, my appeal, if you’d like to help, please forward this file or link on to others.

People can support our efforts online via:

www.spbd.ws or

www.microdreams.org

and now also at:  www.mercycorps.org

That’s it for now.  Tofa soifua.

Greg

Friends,

I have arrived in Samoa.  I spent Saturday and Sunday visiting devastated villages and meeting with my staff.

The scale of the destruction is extraordinary.  Many villages, at least twenty, are simply gone.  The death toll continues to rise and the search for bodies continues.

The Samoan Red Cross is doing a terrific job at leading the disaster relief effort.  I am impressed with their dedication and their effort.  They are getting critical food and water out to needy family’s everyday.

The villages are now somewhat eerily deserted since there is frequently nothing standing in the village.  As a result many people are sleeping outside on hillsides, which is not particularly healthy since the hillsides are chock-full of mosquitoes.  In the villages everywhere you look are slabs of concrete where a home or small business once stood.  On some of these concrete slabs a few brave souls (almost always a group of young men) have set up tents or tarpaulins and are trying to make a go of it.

I’ve perused the local newspaper (the Samoa Observer) as well as the New Zealand Herald.  For those from the US, it is worthwhile to check out the stories in either of these papers.  They are filled with both stories of tragedy and extraordinary good fortune.   As one might expect, most of the deceased are children, the elderly or women.

As one progresses through the tsunami zone, the stench begins to become overwhelming.  The smell is getting worse.  It is a horrible, awful smell that seems to permeate everything.  I’d say it is the smell of death.  The area is full of dead everything.  I fear that it will get much worse prior to dissipating and that this could cause a full blown health issue.  After getting out of the tsunami zone, all one wants to do is to shower.

This week is a big week for SPBD.  Tomorrow (Mon) we will be out in force in each of the devastated villages trying to get detailed assessments of what each family truly needs.  We will then prepare aid packages and start distributing them a day or two later.  We plan on distributing packages that will last a family for a week or so. Included in these packages along with food, drink clothing, basic cooking supplies and other essentials will be cash.   None of the other relief organizations are providing cash grants to the devastated families, but in the final analysis, it is often what people in a dire situation really need the most.

While many villages especially in the Aliepata area (SE Coast of Upolu, Samoa) have been wiped out, the roads are passable.   It is an interesting phenomenon, that since Samoa is very mountainous, high-elevation areas and areas on the North Coast (opposite side of the island) were completely unaffected by the tsunami.  If a family can catch a bus out of the area (hopefully there will be some very limited bus service in the region tomorrow) and a cash grant will help them to do so, then by all means I am in favor of empowering the families to get up and go.

Samoa has a long and difficult road ahead.  There will be a mass funeral on Thursday.  It will be an enormous national day of mourning.  There will be health issues in the near future, I feel almost certain about that.  And then there will need to be massive reconstruction of small businesses and homes.  We hope to play the lead role in that activity.  We will spread the word of hope tomorrow while we visit with these families.  We will give them the hope that they can rebuild their homes and their livelihoods by demonstrating our very concrete commitments to help them to do so.  But right now it is still far too early to launch a micro-business in the tsunami zone.  And so at the same time as we give them hope we must also give them the proverbial “hand-out.”  We have always believed in the “hand-up” and not a “hand-out” approach, but at this time and in these dire circumstances at for at least the short time immediately ahead, these families who have suffered such extraordinary misfortune, certainly deserve a hand-out and I will be most satisfied to give it to them.

Thanks once again to all who are supporting our efforts.  I greatly appreciate it and it is making a big difference.  As a reminder, donations on line can be made at: www.spbd.ws or www.microdreams.org

Greg

Greg Casagrande

(greg@spbd.ws)

Friday, October 2, 2009 7:13pm

I am still en-route to Samoa. I just arrived into Auckland, NZ. It’s always great to be back in NZ – even though this is just for a 10 hour layover.

I head to Samoa overnight. It is absolutely imperative that we get our reconstruction and relief strategies well thought out.

Over the medium to longer term it is very clear what SPBD’s role is. We will help micro-entrepreneurs relaunch their businesses. We will help the now homeless to rebuild their homes. In short we will help to rebuild the local economy and to re-empower the families that have been devastated by this tsunami to get control over their lives once again.

In the immediate/short term the strategy is less clear. It depends upon the local immediate need. My first goal upon arriving is to begin to establish a clear assessment of what is most desperately needed and where can SPBD / MicroDreams add the biggest value.

Clear immediate needs are: 1) finding and burying the dead. 2)ensuring that all have clean dry clothing, 3) ensuring that all have adequate clean safe drinking water and food, 4) ensuring that all have safe and adequate temporary accommodations. We will have to quickly devise SPBD’s specific strategy in response to each of theses needs.

One lesson that has been learned from the SE Asian tsunami of a few years ago is that it is very important to quickly move beyond relief and to get people working once again in a productive manner so that they are then able to propel the devastated society forward through their own efforts. Volunteers and aid efforts can never match the ability and efforts of a well mobilized self interested local society.

SPBD can play a big role in facilitating this transition.

A couple of ideas that I am thinking of are:

1) How can we re-establish local micro-entrepreneurs that can begin to very quickly provide the much needed food, drinking water, clothing and shelter to their local villages? This would make the recovery sustainable and that is something that I think is very important.

2) How can we get cash into the hands of local villagers while achieving some very basic relief goals. One idea is to organize groups of villagers to work on important relief projects and to pay them each a reasonable wage at the end of each day. This helps to achieve important relief objectives while also getting cash back into the local economy so that people can then begin to get their families back up on their feet through their own efforts.

While I am mapping out the strategy, we are also moving forward and cementing some important partnerships. Mercy Corps in the USA is proving to be a very helpful partner. The FDC in Australia has offered to provide us with some experienced guidance. And we are now in discussions with the NFL who may also be able to provide us with some very critical and much needed financial and moral support.

Thanks to all who are writing to me. I am sorry that I cant respond to all individually. I’ll try my best to keep all posted as we move forwarded.

If you are keen to help support our effort financially, you can do so by visiting us at either www.spbd.ws or www.microdreams.org. Any and all amounts are very helpful.

All the best,

Greg

Fri 2:24am

am in the airport lounge at lax in the middle of a 39 hour trip to samoa via nz. I’m head to Samoa to help lead spbd’s relief and reconstruction effort there after the tsunami on tues. this is going to be a real challenge.