Island communities across the Pacific were on high alert after a powerful eruption of an undersea volcano approximately 30 km south of Tonga’s Fonuafo’ou island sent tsunami waves around the world on Saturday January 15th, flooding Tonga’s main island and capital city and causing significant damage on outlying islands. The effects of the eruption were felt widespread across the Pacific Ocean, in which tsunami advisories were issued in regions as far as the US and Canada’s western coasts.
Island communities are on the front lines of the climate emergency and often have little resilience to disasters due to their remote geography and high level of vulnerability to their surrounding environments. Members of the large and widespread Tongan diaspora are already mobilizing to support the affected communities, with many eager to send donations and raise funds for disaster relief efforts.
The events in Tonga have shown impacts on one island can have rippling effects to others on the other side of the globe. It is vital that island communities come together and help one another as such disasters can happen anywhere at any time.
To stay updated and see how you can support relief and recovery efforts in Tonga please refer to the following sources. We will update this page as more information becomes available.
Donate Responsibly Pasifika has created a fact sheet on how to donate responsibly in times of crisis. Copies are available in English as well as other pacific languages. Please refer to their webpage here.
Information and Updates:
- Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga
- Permanent Mission of Tonga to the UN
- New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- New Zealand Council for International Development
- New Zealand Defence Force
- Donate Responsibly Pasifika
Relief Efforts and How to Donate (Please verify before donating):
- Tonga Tsunami relief by Pita Taufatofua
- New Zealand Red Cross
- Help Tonga, ALL with Tonga by Malakai Fekitoa
- Tearfund
- The Catholic Agency for Justice, Peace and Development
- Oxfam Aotearoa
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