The Dunedin City Council and Port Otago have stepped up to ensure the city's Tongan community can send supplies to families impacted by this month's volcanic eruption and tsunami.
The Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee was coordinating shipping containers at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium last week. (File photo). Photo: RNZ / Lydia Lewis
Supplies and donations have been flooding into the Dunedin Tongan Community group for loved ones in Tonga since the eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai and the tsunami which followed on 15 January.
But there were questions on how the goods would be transported after the group was quoted more than $10,000 for a container.
Dunedin Tongan Community co-ordinator Finau Taungapeau said the Dunedin City Council and Port Otago had today offered a 40-foot container to transport the goods.
There were more than 100 families in the city's Tongan community, and all were anxious to send supplies to loved ones in Tonga.
"We know from our families that the crops are no good and water is an issue, so it'll take time for them to recover and the support needs to make sure goods are coming in different waves to keep them going."
The group intended to send three containers of supplies over the next six months, with the Clutha District Council also potentially able to help by providing a container.
Taungapeau spoke to her brother in Nukuʻalofa on Monday about the situation on the ground.
"Basically he said 'We need food'. He said they can boil their tap water and collect it and drink from it. But I think the food is running out quickly and the price has gone sky-high now, which a lot of families don't have money to purchase that.
"So that's where we are trying to provide food items - non-perishable and water, to get there as fast as they can."
