Big blow to Cole

By Casey Neill
FERNTREE Gully charity founder and Knox councillor Peter Cole was last week trapped in Fiji as Hurricane Tomas battered the island nation.
Cr Cole was in the capital Suva making plans for his Spirit of Sharing sports equipment project when 150km/h winds and heavy rain put the city in lockdown.
He was supposed to be on the island of Taveuni but all flights had been cancelled.
“Luckily I didn’t get there as it’s been the hardest hit so far,” he said.
“I have lost contact with the people there altogether now as trees are down everywhere and lines are cut.”
Cr Cole remained under a government curfew in Suva when the Mail caught up with him last Friday, 19 March.
The government had closed all businesses, banned people from the streets and cut water and power supplies.
“I was shocked to hear the hurricane was on its way as I only know too well how these poor villages would not be able to withstand such powerful winds,” Cr Cole said.
“Most houses are made of tin sheets and the odd nail. They are very basic structures that are not built to take any storm.”
“A lot of the villages are also on the water’s edge which caused me more concern as the seas could just take them away.”
Cr Cole said the hurricane was much stronger than locals expected and had hit hardest in the country’s north, where he’d last year distributed sporting and educational goods.
“Some islands are now just sand with trees standing tall with no leaves,” he said.
“These islands used to have soil and crops and now nothing.”
Damage caused by the storm could hamper plans to this year expand the Spirit of Sharing to include shipping medical supplies and building a dormitory.
“People will need to concentrate on rebuilding their houses and businesses before we can enlist their labour to build the dormitory,” he said.
Three hospitals were earmarked to this year receive bandages, bed sheets, wheelchairs, syringes and other supplies.
“This might still be achievable, depending on the state of the hospitals on these islands,” Cr Cole said.
“The sporting gear we were going to take to 50 schools will be handed out if we can do the hospital distributions.”
Cr Cole said the project’s new facets would provide challenges.
He will enlist help from locals and Australian volunteers to build a 40-bed dormitory for Buca Levu Secondary School on Taveuni.
“The dormitory is urgently required to allow parents from remote parts of the island to send their children to school,” he said. “At present only the most basic education is available in some of the remote areas.”
He’ll also transport medical supplies and equipment to the islands.
“Staff from regional health centres often say their facilities are under-resourced,” he said.
“The Spirit of Sharing has developed systems for the collection and subsequent distribution of goods in Fiji, so to us this was a natural progression.”
Cr Cole first visited Fiji in 2000. He started Spirit of Sharing after watching children kicking empty bottles and coconut husks.
He raised $59,000 last year, $39,000 more than anticipated, and delivered sporting goods to 131 schools.