Airlink, Inc.’s Post

Listen deeply. Act boldly. Be in the service of those in need. We have a spiritual calling to support communities in crisis. With these words from Eunice Wotene, Oxfam's Executive Director and host of the first FALE Pacific AGM, the gathering got off the ground in Port Moresby. It’s part of PIANGO - the Pacific Islands Association of NGOs - a regional platform of National Umbrella NGOs known as National Liaison Units present in 24 Countries and Territories in the Pacific. I sit as Airlink, Inc. ‘s representative on the steering committee of FALE Pacific as the alternate representative of international NGOs. We heard the impassioned words of Emeline Siale Ilolahia, PIANGO's Executive Director, that climate change is threatening not just lives and property in the Pacific Islands but the very fabric of communities that also threaten their cultures. Cultures - plural - because we all acknowledge the incredible diversity of a region spanning multiple archipelagos of island dwellers with myriad languages and cultural practices. A region subject to seasonal and powerful cyclones, devastating earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. We spent the first day discussing how to place people and not processes at the heart of humanitarian responses when communities are already traumatised. Without money, communities can still be resilient and respond and try to overcome with limited local resources. But without the heart and spirit of the people, no money in the world can address the effects of disasters. When Vanuatu saw 80% of its population devastated by three cyclones and one earthquake last year; when Tonga lost contact with the world for four weeks after the historic submarine volcanic eruption of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai in January 2022; when floods destroyed local villages in Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea but were not declared disasters - the first responders were the very victims of these disasters. PIANGO was formed to solve one key problem: that the current humanitarian system is slow to respond to disasters. The first respondents to disaster are the affected people themselves but they are not empowered nor given the resources to build their resilience and draw on their traditional knowledge to adapt and find solutions to sustainable recovery. The voices of civil society organisations – so key to effective recovery – are not being heard at the policy level and incorporated into response mechanisms. As Sesimani Lokotui of FALE Tonga said, this vaka (vessel) has been sailing for so long, and with collaboration among the actors in the humanitarian field, let us see where the vaka leads us all. We have a whole week of listening and learning ahead of us. Together we are learning how to steer this vaka and learn to read the winds and the tides that carry her. #humanitarianaid #logistics #disasterresponse