In 2016 Cyclone Zena damaged the clinic in Asanvari Village in South Maewo, Vanuatu, taking out the walls and roof of one of the three rooms. The clinic has one nurse and provides basic medical help to the community of about 500 people in the surrounding villages.

I visited again in January and unfortunately the clinic is exactly as it was back in 2016. Asanvari has been a treasured place for me since I lived there in 2009, and I'd love to support the community by raising money for repairs.

The nurse and governing committee have been applying for funding from the province and have been told they should receive money in May this year*. In the meantime, the clinic has been assessed as not fit for purpose and told to close unless it can complete repairs by December this year.

Nurse Lizzie in the dispensary

There are three issues with the damage to the clinic:

1) If they can't get the repairs done in time and the clinic closes then it will be a costly and time consuming boat trip to the nearest medical help, which likely means people won't go unless it's an emergency, when it might be too late.

2) The damage to the clinic means that the rest of it is more vulnerable to the next cyclone, and the Nurse's office where the medicines are kept would be the next room to go.

3) The room that's gone was the inpatient ward, which means the maternity ward now has an extra bed crammed in and if someone is giving birth while a sick person is admitted they'll be in very close proximity.

The maternity ward

The clinic is close to the shore and needs to be relocated as the sea level is visibly rising, which the funding from the province should go towards. I want to raise just enough money for basic repairs in the meantime, which involves the cost of buying corrugated iron for the roof from Santo (a bigger island), shipping and labour costs. Local builders will do the repairs, they've already cut timber from the bush for the walls with money raised from the community.

I'll also set up a page to receive donations in New Zealand dollars, so it's okay if this page doesn't reach the target on its own.

*Hopefully the money will come in May, but that's not a sure thing, as things like the volcanoes erupting on Ambae and Ambryn can disrupt budgets and timelines.