Samoa Needs Your Help Now

Flooded Resort in Samoa

The tsunami in the Pacific last week hit the Samoan people on the North Shore and in New Zealand really hard.

Sometimes it’s easy to ignore the plight of others in our busy lives and  daily business. If you sell real estate in New Zealand, the Samoan people are your clients, buying and selling houses through YOU. And yet this tsunami could so easily have been you or I. Milford, Takapuna, Browns Bay are at sea level, the waves were 5-7 metres, that’s much higher than the telegraph poles outside your window. How far can you run?

This time it is different, the people affected do not live on the other side of the planet. They live here, in your neighbourhood, your town and your street. They work along side you, you meet them at the supermarket. John Key has said “All palagi are Samoans today” They need your help NOW.

Ben Taufua lives on the North Shore. He is Albany’s Pacifika development adviser. He lost 11 members of his family last week at the resort his family runs,  Taufua Beach Fales. You know that many people from New Zealand have holidayed there. You may have holidayed there or wished you could. Many Samoan people rushed around, risking their lives, waking Kiwi and Aussie holiday makers up to get them to run before the waves came. Many Kiwis and Aussies died last week

Half the All Blacks are Samoan. We love Samoa when they play football: they help us beat the world.

When David Tua, the Tuaminator, is World Champion we’ll say he’s a kiwi, we love Samoa in the boxing ring.

The best of our music is Samoan. Think of Scribe, Oscar Keightley.

We love chilling on their beaches when we go on holiday.

New Zealand would be a poorer, meaner place without our Samoan brother and sisters, neighbours and friends.

On October 19, there’ll be a charity concert headlining Tim and Neil Finn. Support it.

The best thing you can do is donate money to the Red Cross. Please make financial donations and do it NOW. You can make a donation here. Do it NOW.