Anglican Missions has opened an emergency appeal to help the Anglican Church of Melanesia respond to the needs of people in Vanuatu affected by the powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday 17 December.

Reports over last five the days show 1 in 3 people in Vanuatu are directly affected by the serious tremor which hit 37 kilometres west of Port Vila, on the island of Efate, at a depth of 57 kilometres. 

For the 51,000 people living in the affected areas, vital communications, power and water infrastructure and buildings have been severely damaged. Sixteen people have been reported killed in the earthquakes and more than 210 people have been injured.

Anglican Missions will support the Anglican Church of Melanesia in Vanuatu to provide urgent immediate needs and with ongoing support as the emergency moves into recovery.

People need clean drinking water now
Help provide access to safe water.

The water supply has been cut off in affected areas and there are confirmed reports of damage to two reservoirs in the Ohlen area that service Port Vila.

Through the Anglican Alliance donations will help fund drinking water, containers, and transportation costs, as well as for providing food and psychosocial support to people most affected.

$68 will buy a food relief pack for a family
$32 will buy a carton of 1.5L bottles of water  

People need help to get online in the aftermath
Help Anglican Missions to purchase Starlink units.

Internet and mobile communications are down across Vanuatu. The main provider for cellphone coverage, Digicel, is working to restore mobile communications. There are intermittent improvements in mobile to mobile calls in Efate, but the southern interchange cable providing internet to the island is damaged.

Starlink was approved for use in Vanuatu in March 2024 and provides phones for international communication.

Your donations will go towards providing the Anglican Church of Melanesia Starlink units to help restore communications from the Church out of the islands.

Starlink Units cost $720 - $860 NZD to purchase in Vanuatu.

Psychosocial support will help people recover
Donate for counsellors to provide ongoing help.

Disaster events leave lingering trauma for the people affected. The Port Vila main hospital is full and struggling to cope with the rising number of injured. Ongoing counselling and psychosocial support will be vital to help people build resilience so that they can get on with life with the skills they need to mitigate lingering trauma.

$800 will fund a volunteer to provide psycho-social counselling as part of the response (10 volunteer counsellors will be deployed). 

Your financial support is most helpful
Please don't send physical goods.

Well-intentioned donations of physical items like blankets, clothing, toys etc can often become a burden for people in an area affected by disaster. These items can add work or create waste for receiving communities that don't have the resources to handle them.

The best way to help is to donate financially to groups like the Anglican Church of Melanesia in Vanuatu who know what their hardest-hit families need, and can efficiently respond to their communities' greatest needs.

As the Vanuatu-based Anglican Church develops its short term response plan on the ground, the need for physical goods and service may become clear, and that's when people overseas can send those requested items that local people need to rebuild their communities.

Go to Anglican Missions to donate to the Vanuatu Earthquake Appeal.