So things change.
We found all sorts of logistical difficulties in landing and moving some of the gear, but none the less we managed to get all the food and most of the water out to our villages in Tanna.
Some new opportunities opened up today in the area where our corps outpost is in Port Vila. We connected with a local NGO who are struggling to serve the community with the extent of needs and their limited resources. We've offered to help, and starting this week we are therefore able to adopt the local village around our corps without tredding on other agencies turf. Sounds funny to say that, and no-one is really territorial, but we are very well coordinated to ensure the best spread of support and the least (if any) duplication.
The partnerships are developing well. To facilitate the first distribution in this area we are using gear that we have sourced from Samaritan's Purse, including hygiene gear and household kits, that we are going to deliver to 200 families in the neighbourhood. We will use another NGO's truck to get to our centre as well. So four agencies are working together in cooperation in this area.
We are scurrying to write up a lot of our work into projects that will demonstrate our use of funds to the donor territories. It's pretty mundane work, but it's great to be able to get a few formalised things in place so that the international Salvation Army can get a picture of the work that is being undertaken.
Tomorrow our Tanna team will be back in the field getting ready for distributing household items and starting the longer term solution to the water problems. I will be heading to the island of Erramango for our first look after being invited by a local mission to come and help. This will be purely an assessment visit, but it will help us know if there is work we should be doing there.
And our Port Vila team, including my newly arrived Admin guy (PRAISE THE LORD), will prepare for our first urban distribution and start to assess the community we've now adopted for longer term assistance.
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