Ranwas

Ranwas

Ranwas, South East Pentecost

Interview with Mr David Taback, Principal of Ranwas Primary School

Ranwas was absolutely devastated by TC Harold. We spoke with the principal of the primary school (and host of our build project in 2019), who alks us through the impact of Harold on the village. Previously a picturesque and well-kept village, Ranwas was razed to the ground by Harold, leaving just 3 buildings remaining. The above image shows the guest house; and the video begins with some shots of the surroundings. In the hard-hitting interview that follows, David provides us with many details of community life since Harold. The sense of hardship and loss is palpable throughout. A summary of the interview follows.

David says he will be talking about healthcare, the guest house, the school, then lastly, community life and the church. The cyclone arrived at night and started to pick up around 5.30pm. It is the first time something this destructive has happened, even the old people in the village have never experienced anything like it. The cyclone has destroyed their aid post/ health clinic and everything in it. All the medicine inside the clinic has been damaged or blown away. There is not a single medicine left. The guest house has been completely destroyed by the cyclone. The sheets of roofing were completely gone. They are thankful that no one was killed or injured badly. On the right is the church where nothing is left but some posts. 

There are 63 houses in Ranwas and 3 are still standing. In these three houses, everyone took shelter, even though the houses were leaking and fragile. All of them were crammed in and standing in these two houses until the morning, including the elderly and infirm. There were around 90 people in each of the three houses. Over at the school, there is one very secure new building which is still standing. However, even in the new building, there was some water damage. It really truly is a cyclone proof building. Some people were talking about going to the new building to shelter but, because it was new, some people had reservations about going to the new building as it had not withstood a category five cyclone before and was only built to category three specifications. People are also wary of that area because it was the worst hit by Cyclone Pam. Now, they know that Harry (the designer of the building) is a true technician and has really made them a cyclone proof building. Thank you so much to the Tanbok Project for building a cyclone proof building. The new building has kept a lot of the stuff safe and has protected a lot of the materials of the school. The other school building lost its veranda and had a bit of damage but was otherwise ok, the traditional building classroom was completely destroyed. 

You can see in the background what has happened. All of the coconuts have fallen down and all of the fruits have fallen down. Currently, the only supply of coconuts are the ones that fell down during the cyclone itself. David thinks that it will take about five years until the coconuts are completely restored. Currently, in terms of housing, they have managed to fashion some shelters crudely nailing down iron roofing or tarpaulins. The community have been trying to find thatch to attempt to patch up their houses. There’s not enough thatch to go around so each person is only able to repair one hole or manage to cobble together one section of roof for the buildings that make up a home. It is the same situation for everyone. The natangura trees themselves have been damaged. The natangura has been blown from the trees and most is unsalvageable- the trees have no branches. The damage to the trees is so severe that it will take five years to recover. Instead of natangura the iron roofing sheets are the only alternative; however, people are wary of them as they were the most easily blown away by the cyclone and the most likely to cause harm to people if another cyclone hit.

In terms of sanitation, they have an awareness campaign. All water must be boiled and the community has been encouraged to wash their hands frequently. There have been no outbreaks of illness due to poor sanitation. In terms of healthcare, they are quite concerned as they have lost their aid post but also the road is blocked. This means if anything were to happen, they have no options. The only transport option at the moment is by boat which means travelling by foot for an hour-1/2 hour walk to the sea. A lot of the time it is not safe to travel by boat as the sea is too rough. The opportunities for transport are sporadic and there are small windows of opportunities for boats to land. This makes it even more important that everyone follows the guidance surrounding sanitation because, if anything were to happen, it would be impossible to cope. This means that they also have to be careful if anyone has any cuts. They have to keep wounds very clean and bandaged up with clean fabric.

In the whole area of Ranwas, there are 190+ inhabitants. If you include the people from Ranwas that are living elsewhere, the population is more than 300. There were no injuries at the time of the cyclone; however, the following morning, one old man, around 93 years old, saw the state of his house and felt totally forlorn. After that he went missing and people began to go and look for him when he did not show for lunch. They looked for him for five days but never found him. After a week, they found his dead body down by the sea. They wanted to carry him to the village to have a proper burial but his body was too far gone to be carried. David describes how they then interred him by the sea.

On behalf of the community, David thanks the family members in Vila who chartered a helicopter with supplies to help them. Immediately after the cyclone, he was hoping the government would come but only the families in Vila were the ones who took the initiative to send them urgent supplies. David becomes pretty emotional at this point and thanks these people deeply who provided them with tarpaulin, clothes, food and soap. The government has now sent some relief (three weeks after) so David thanks them for remembering their remote community, and providing them with much needed supplies which were impossible to transport by road. David thanks other countries and international communities who have provided assistance to Vanuatu. He also gives thanks to the visit. Currently, there are now five houses and the school buildings that everyone is using for shelter for those who have not managed to rebuild. David presses that they need an evacuation centre as the most important need to help them be safe during any future cyclone.