Disaster Relief
Located along the Ring of Fire and the Tongan Trench, Tonga is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters such as cyclones, earthquakes, floods, and droughts. The 2020 World Risk Report declared that Oceania both leads the world in disaster risk and exposure to extreme natural events due to climate change. The two countries with the highest overall risk: the Pacific Island nations of Vanuatu and Tonga.
The existential crisis of climate change has grown only more urgent and Pacific Islanders are some of the first groups of people to become climate change refugees. “Once in a lifetime” weather events occur annually, islands are being swallowed by the sea, and traditional food sources are diminishing.
Less than two percent of charitable global giving is directed at climate change with only a fraction allocated to Oceania. Friends of Tonga seeks to change this by providing a direct avenue from generous donors to reputable partners, innovative programs, and impacted communities when disaster strikes.
2022: Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai Volcanic Eruption and Tsunami
On January 15th, 2022, an underwater volcano erupted in the middle of the Ha’apai island group, coughing a wide plume of soot and gas miles into the air. The eruption was so enormous that it was heard as far away as Alaska and was seen from space. Forty miles south, tsunami waves crashed into Tongatapu, the largest and most populous island in the Kingdom of Tonga, and devastated much of its northern coast. The underwater fibre optic cable that connects Tonga to the rest of the world was severed and communication was cutoff.
Once the volcanic ash settled, and communication was restored, the devastation became clear. While fatalities were remarkably minimal, all homes were destroyed on the island of Mango and nearly all on other nearby islands. Ash covered everything, spoiling large swaths of farmland and contaminating water supplies.
Within days of the eruption, Friends of Tonga began fundraising to support disaster relief efforts and was the first nonprofit to underwrite a disaster relief response. Since then, we have invested and coordinated over $500,000 USD in disaster relief services that have impacted over half of the Tongan population across every island group.
We partnered with organizations in Tonga, such as the Civil Society Forum of Tonga and the Mainstreaming of Rural Development Innovation Tonga Trust, to fund water, sanitation, and hygiene services, address hunger and mental health needs, and support the distribution of needed supplies.
2018: Cyclone Gita
On February 12, 2018, Tropical Cyclone Gita, a category five cyclone (category four hurricane) ravaged Tonga. With winds of more than 170 miles per hour, Cyclone Gita slammed into the main island of Tongatapu and the nearby island of ‘Eua. Together, these two islands are home to three-quarters of the country’s 107,000 people.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the storm caused widespread flooding and damaged some 1,600 houses. Much of the electrical grid went down, and many lost access to clean drinking water. Over $152 million in damage was estimated to be incurred, an alarming amount for a country with roughly $400 million in annual GDP.
Cyclone Gita is the reason Friends of Tonga was founded. With no direct way to support Tonga, a group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and local Tongan leaders founded Friends of Tonga and began fundraising to support impacted communities.
In response to Cyclone Gita, Friends of Tonga successfully rebuilt the Ta’anga kindergarten. You can read more about that effort here.