Fifteen international delegates deployed to the Pacific in 2024

It has been a busy year for our international delegates working in the Pacific Islands. Since January, 15 New Zealand Red Cross specialists have headed to the region. 

They include experts in health, first aid, construction, information technology and telecommunications (IT and T) climate resilience, finance, and water, sanitation and hygiene training (WASH).

When emergencies hit the region, such as a recent devastating earthquake in Vanuatu, we assist by sending our specialist delegates, when requested, to support Red Cross National Societies in their response and recovery to the event. In quieter times, our delegates can work with National Societies to support their development, sustainability and capability. 

Newly trained delegates head to the Pacific

In May, we held the first delegate training since the COVID-19 epidemic. Nineteen people participated, including one person from Samoa Red Cross and they join our pool of over 100 specialists. The training readies participants to working in emergency situations, including cultural awareness and how we support our Red Cross Red Crescent partners internationally. New delegates also complete a personal security course.  

Just three days after completing her training, information technology delegate, Chris Chong was on a plane to Vanuatu as part of an IT and T team, to install an ‘IT-in-a-box' for Vanuatu Red Cross. This robust systems’ package is specifically designed for the Pacific environment, enabling the National Society’s vital communications to continue to function during extreme weather events.

L-R Marino Batto, Vanuatu Red Cross IT, New Zealand Red Cross IT&T delegates Chris Chong and Kraig Winters

Chris has over a decade of IT experience, including engineering technology, and volunteer work with New Zealand Red Cross. “I love tackling unexpected challenges and enjoy supporting people adapt to new tools and systems. It was incredibly rewarding to work with the Vanuatu Red Cross and a privilege to be in a team enabling Pasifika communities to lift their technology capability and disaster resilience,” says Chris.  

Our information technology teams worked in Pacific Island countries three times this year – in Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa. The teams are part of our IT and T Emergency Response Unit and are ready to respond globally within 72 hours.   

Kraig Winters did exactly that in July when Fiji Red Cross’ nine-year-old computer server would not start. This meant the National Society could not access many of its IT systems, such as finance and emergency management data. On discovering the server’s mother board had failed, Kraig was on a plane to Fiji the next morning with a replacement server. He installed it, recovered data, and was back at home just three days later!  

Building relationships across the Pacific 

Our finance specialist, Claire MacFarlane was also fresh out of delegate training when she was sent to Kiribati in October. She joined long standing National Society development and finance specialist, Janice Kelemete, for two weeks to help Kiribati Red Cross with their financial reporting, budgeting and audit preparation. “Janice’s established links with the National Society was a real bonus for me as a first-time delegate. I’m in it for the long game and to be able to meet people, to understand how their finance systems work, and build connections with local staff, is really huge for me,” says Claire. The pair worked closely with finance officer, Taramwa Enoka Benson. 
 
Janice says: “Claire and I were like Tango and Cash! She’s amazing. We worked well together with Taramwa, leveraging our individual strengths. Claire taught me some new tips on finance and I was able to show her how we work with National Societies. It was lovely to take her to meet people. Once they meet you face to face, they remember you. It is particularly important culturally in Pacific Island Nations.” 

Delegate Janice Kalemete with Clerk Toka, finance officer, Cook Islands Red Cross

Delegate Claire MacFarlane and Taramwa Enoka Benson, finance officer Kiribati Red Cross

Janice continued to assist the Kiribati Red Cross for six more weeks. “I’ve set up a weekly online meeting with Taramwa. I wouldn’t have been able to do this effectively without meeting her face to face and getting to know her.” Kiribati Red Cross finances are now up to date and the Society can progress with three years of financial audits, as they recruit a new finance manager.  

Accurate financial reporting is crucial for the National Societies to access funding. Janice also worked with Cook Islands Red Cross recently. With just five staff, and high costs to reach many island communities in the archipelago with services, the National Society has many challenges. “Without good finance systems, there are no projects – they can’t do anything. I worked with local finance officer, Clerk Toka, to support correct data entry to the online finance system and to improve processes. We also did a stock take including an inventory of all first aid kits – all needed for the financial audits.” 

“It’s important to understand the challenges, what they are doing and asking what I can do to help.  I started saying ‘we’ a lot and chuckle, but they replied with, ‘but Janice, you are one of our team!’, she says.  

Face to face meetings also help with knowledge sharing. In March, Director of International Operations, Viv Euini, visited Red Cross National Societies in Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu and Tonga. She was seeking their input into the design of the new funding agreement between New Zealand Red Cross and the NZ government. “It was a highlight for me. Without sitting beside, and hearing directly from our partners, I wouldn’t have known about the absence of funding and the challenges they face with their health programmes, that the National Societies across five countries are prioritising climate resilience work and need support to strengthen their planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting. I was able to adjust the design to truly reflect their needs because of their input.”  

Community health, and water, sanitation and hygiene promotion 

Pacific Island countries experience a wide range of hazards, including cyclones, drought and earthquakes. The increases in the severity of storms and variations of rainfall and sea level rise present new risks to communities. Their access to safe water is an ongoing challenge and is often limited to rainwater harvesting, which is increasingly vulnerable to rainfall variability, cyclones and severe storms. Across the Pacific, one child in ten does not have access to clean drinking water, and one in three does not have adequate sanitation. Diseases related to water and sanitation are the leading cause of death in children under five, according to UNICEF.  

Our delegate Liz Macdonald is currently based in Suva, Fiji and is seconded to the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). She has been the Health Manager supporting health, and water and sanitation and hygiene (WASH) work across 11 National Societies. Her work includes monitoring regional weekly communicable disease outbreak notifications and providing technical support to relevant National Societies. Liz helps Red Cross staff and volunteers in the Pacific Islands with their health and WASH promotion projects, by monitoring their implementation and spending. This year she visited Vanuatu Red Cross twice to assist the National Society. “Both visits went well. I was able to support in a number of areas including increasing their capacity to deliver WASH training to local communities. I also accompanied Vanuatu Red Cross colleagues to meet with the Ministry of Health on the restart of the National Society’s blood programme after 20 years. This programme will provide valuable assistance to the Ministry through community education and raising awareness of the value of donating blood,” says Liz.  
 
“We take great pride in supporting our sister national societies to build capacity and strengthen their resilience, so they are better prepared for and able to respond to emergencies. The generous donations to our Pacific Disaster Fund enables us to send our delegates to the region and beyond,” says Viv Euini.  

In November, our WASH delegate, Michelle Hitchcock co-facilitated a five-day interactive WASH training in Lautoka, Fiji to strengthen the technical knowledge and skills of 15 participants from several Red Cross National Societies, UNICEF and government agencies This is timely training as the cyclone season for the Pacific region has already begun.  

More information

Learn more about our international delegates’ work and how we recruit 
International Delegate Programme

Find out more about our work in the Pacific  
Our work in the Pacific

If you would like to support our work in the Pacific, you can donate to our Pacific Disaster Fund.  
Make a donation now

Or, to donate via phone, call: 0800 RED CROSS (0800 733 2766) option 2, which takes you through to our donations team. We can only take credit card donations over the phone. 

Header image credit: Daniell Cowley, Consultant, Kiatoa Ulika, President, Tuvalu Red Cross, Vivienne Euini, Director International Operations, Tagifoe Taomia, Secretary General, Tuvalu Red Cross