UNICEF Ambassador Dan Carter visits the 'world's most at-risk country' for natural disasters. Video / NZ Herald
Dan Carter is visiting the world's most at-risk country for natural disasters. Journalist Emma Russell finds out why.
Dozens of small schoolchildren huddle under a ragged shack next to an exposed Vanuatu highway while Cyclone Harold's 260km/h winds ripped through their home.
Twenty-seven lives were lost in the Pacific that day.
Two and a half years later, former All Black and Unicef Aotearoa ambassador Dan Carter visited what's been called the world's most at-risk country for natural disasters - to find oodles of young smiles.
"Every child deserves a chance to play rugby. Children here are just so grateful no matter their upbringing and the trauma they have suffered," Carter said.
"We visited a birthing centre and it's tough, to see the basics that they are working with and the support Unicef gives these communities just blows you away," Carter said.
Kids as young as 5 years old have to climb muddy mountains for hours to get to and from school each day, Unicef NZ CEO Michelle Sharp told the Herald on Sunday.
"School is a safe haven for many of these kids because there is so much violence against children and women at home," Sharp said.
The Pacific Islands are our neighbours and we should treat them like our whānau, she said.
Carter says the similes and energy from children in Vanuatu were infectious despite the suffering they had been through. Photo / Supplied
Sharp and her team invited Carter to Vanuatu, saying many of New Zealand's greatest rugby players came from Pasifika villages and Unicef's work in those communities was close to the former All Black's heart.
Carter this month raised more than $500,000 during a Kickathon to support water and sanitation programmes in the Pacific, before travelling to Vanuatu.
As rain swept trees in the background, Carter said, via Zoom, that having children himself - now aged 1,3,7 and 9 - made the trauma he was witnessing in Vanuatu that much more real.
"Children here are very shy and they have the most beautiful smiles and energy," Carter said.
Seeing quiet kids' eyes light up when he brought out a rugby ball - despite being football enthusiasts at heart - made the trip even more special, Carter said.
"They wanted to play and throw the ball around. I took a few kicking sessions and we played lots of rugby together."
Carter visited an area on Pentecost Island that was ruined in the April 2020 cyclone, where hospitals and schools have not yet been repaired.
"The hospital, the medical centre, the schools were all still destroyed and the trauma that came to the community from that was huge."
He said Unicef had rebuilt bathrooms and improved access to clean water so kids could wash their hands before they ate.
"They were just so grateful, they don't live with a lot but their gratitude, their smiles, their energy was infectious. You walk away from these communities feeling inspired yourself."
After five days in Vanuatu, Carter returned to New Zealand in time for last night's All Blacks-Australia Bledisloe Cup game, with the hope one day he will get to watch kids he met in the Pacific playing in the annual fixture.
Vanuatu was dubbed the country with the highest disaster risk in the world in 2019, according to the World Risk Index for 2018.
Babies born in the Pacific are up to seven times more likely to die in their first month of life than babies in New Zealand, research released in 2018 found.
About Unicef
Unicef, established 75 years ago, has developed the global reach to help deliver life-saving supplies like clean water, medical supplies and treatment for malnutrition to children and families - anywhere in the world - in under 48 hours after an emergency.
