Storm-relief supplies gathered for Samoa

Volunteers loaded hundreds of boxes of nonperishable food, sheets and towels, and other supplies into three 40-foot Matson containers at the Lighthouse Outreach Center church in Wai­pahu on Tuesday, marking the start of a local disaster relief effort for victims of Cyclone Evan in Samoa.

Help Save Samoa, an organization led by Afi­mu­tasi Gus Hannemann, a Hawaii Kai resident who is a former American Samoa legislator, will be accepting donations of money, food, clothing and other supplies to benefit families and villages in the island nation devastated by the Dec. 13 storm.

"An old saying in Samoa is, ‘A friend for every day but a brother for days of need.’ This is the time, we are all brothers and sisters," Hannemann said. "Although we are separated by different geographical and political affiliations, we are one people. There are very few Samoans who say, ‘I only come from one Samoa.’"

Cyclone Evan killed five, left 11 missing and displaced more than 10,000 people in Samoa, according to a late December news release from the Samoan government. Hannemann said damage in American Samoa was minimal.

Help Save Samoa has raised $500 so far, Hannemann said, and hotels and other local businesses have come forward with donations that will leave the islands this week.

Matson will ship, at no charge, containers of donated goods collected by the organization to its terminal in Long Beach, Calif. Matson does not ship to American Samoa or Samoa.

"We support relief efforts for a number of causes, particularly those in the Pacific," said Jeff Hull, spokes­man for Matson Navigation. "We’re pleased to do what we can to help this cause."

After the containers arrive in California, Starkist, which has a large tuna cannery in American Samoa, will pay to ship them to American Samoa, Hannemann said. The American Samoa Red Cross will take the goods to Samoa to be distributed to disaster victims.

Help Save Samoa is also teaming up with the Rev. Alexander LeDoux, pastor of the Samoan Christian Fellowship Assembly of God in Fairfield, Calif., who has been collecting donations since December for Samoan disaster relief.

"It’s an effort that we collectively put together to help the Samoan people displaced by Cyclone Evan in December," LeDoux said in a telephone interview. "We try to get together and help the people as much as we can."

LeDoux and his church also joined a Hannemann-led Hawaii disaster relief effort after a tsunami hit Samoa in 2009, killing nearly 150 people and leaving thousands homeless.

Hannemann said announcement of this disaster relief effort was delayed because "we didn’t want to do it while Hawaii was mourning the loss of (Sen. Daniel) Ino­uye because he was made a chief in our country. He’s known as Fofoga o Samoa, the voice of Samoa. And then a lot of other stuff was going on, like the inauguration of our new governor (of American Samoa), but now everything is cleared out."

Donations of food and supplies are welcome and needed, Hannemann said, but monetary donations are easier to distribute and would allow the Samoan government to purchase specific items many Samoans need, such as tin roofing.

"Samoans still need clothing, bedsheets, pillows, but at the same time they need money," he said. "What they really need is money to buy tin roofing."

Hannemann also encourages families in Hawaii with ties to Samoa to send money and goods directly to relatives in Samoa, saying, "We cannot specify who items will go to. They will go straight to the Red Cross in American Samoa, and they will take items over to the (Samoan) government. Then they will distribute according to the needs of the people."