We are overwhelmed with gratitude to Mr. Charles Piutau and the entire Bristol Bears Rugby Club who raised £23,000 GBP to support Friends of Tonga’s (FoT) disaster relief efforts.
This effort was supported by multiple rugby communities, including the Wales Scarlets Rugby Club who contributed over £2,000 GBP to the effort. To make this even more amazing, all of this was matched by a generous donor, resulting in an incredible £45,850 GBP contribution to FoT!!!
Friends of Tonga is already working with our partners on the ground and will use these funds to support the following initiatives:
- In the short-term: providing water, sanitation, and hygiene services (W.A.S.H) and food.
- Once the impacted communities have been stabilized, we intend to start providing support to the schools and education centers that were destroyed.
We are blown away and can only express our sincerest gratitude to Mr. Piutau, the Bristol Bears, and the entire rugby community that worked together to make this happen. We are honored and consider ourselves Bears fans and Piutau fans for life!
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The Civil Society Forum of Tonga (CSFT) conveyed back to FoT that we were able to provide the outer island of Fonoi with much needed food and water. Based on reports, Fonoi had limited food for 3 weeks, with only 5 sacks of flour to get them through. We were able to fund 30 sacks of root crop and 5 boxes of chicken. Our support was further augmented by the Red Cross, which contributed 10 buckets of biscuits, 30 bags of root crop and New Zealand which supplied fresh water.
FoT funding has also been used to support the construction of a large greenhouse, which has been constructed to germinate and grow crops. This effort is the beginning of the long-term recovery stage of this crisis. Our funding has been used alongside the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Government Organizations (PIANGO)’s funding to support this effort. We have been told that the flexibility of our funds and the fact that FoT is a member of the CSFT has made a massive impact already.
The CSFT will be continuing to provide Friends of Tonga with a breakdown of how our funding is being utilized. We look forward to continuing to share these updates with you.