New Zealand’s government has encouraged Rotary’s Emergency Response Kits and often provided transportation, logistical and financial support over many years.
The Emergency Response Kit is a ‘first response’ resource distributed to affected families immediately following catastrophic weather and environmental events in Polynesia and Melanesia to support them through the first days after a disaster. With a kit and a little ingenuity, a family can construct basic shelter, keep themselves protected from the elements and utilise the immediate survival items that are included.
The main beneficiaries of Emergency Response Kits are the people of Oceania/South Pacific including Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Western Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati and the Cook Islands who are all affected by cyclones and other natural disasters.