Islander gratitude leaves aid organiser feeling humbled

HANDS FULL: Courtney Tilby-Price (left) and mum Kerri with supplies donated for the cyclone-ravaged island of Vanuatu.PHOTO/FILE

Tauranga woman Kerri Tilby-Price is back in the Bay after a two-week trip to Vanuatu - seeing first hand where the container of goods she collected for the nation were distributed.

The mother of two organised the collection of clothes, food, gardening tools, bottled water and medical supplies after her eldest daughter, Courtney, experienced the April 28 cyclone that ripped through the tropical islands.

"We totally underestimated the impact it would make," Mrs Tilby-Price said. "I knew it would make an impact but when you walk into the village and people recognise you, come out of their houses and are crying and hugging you ...

"We were so humbled, we got given gifts of beautiful baskets and island dresses and all different things; it just meant so much to them."

Mrs Tilby-Price said she was especially touched to see a Ni-Vanuatu woman she had taken to hospital just after the cyclone hit. "She was very sick ... coming back and seeing that she was healthy, she saw me and hugged me. Her being sick was just not post-cyclone related. It had obviously been a long drawn-out thing and one trip to hospital, but with treatment ... she was just a different person. That was pretty big for me. I remember turning to Courtney and saying 'do you remember who this lady is?' It was that much of a difference."

Mrs Tilby-Price said it was undecided whether Courtney would return to Vanuatu to teach again or study.

Courtney was awarded a scholarship to Bethlehem Tertiary Institute in the past few weeks and has started a Bachelor of Education.

"Her plan is to do the bachelor and go back to Vanuatu and teach, but more importantly help support the teachers over there to improve the quality of teaching," Mrs Tilby-Price said.

The Exult business owner also said her family was planning to head back to Vanuatu in January to implement a small business enterprise for more employment opportunities for Ni-Vanuatu.

"We did a lot of research on what would be the most useful things for them to move forward, what would make the biggest impact - and what we identified is employment and supporting locals into their own small businesses. We have hand-picked a couple of people in the community who we are going to support into little enterprises.

"It's not gifting them the money, it will be an interest-free loan and when the money comes back we will be able to reinvest it into another little business. Like anybody, they want to be able to sustain themselves, they don't want to live on handouts. But in order to do that they need some way of earning money."

The family will start fundraising over the next few months and use their history in small business to help set up the initiative.

"It will be a long-term solution rather than a quick fix."