Weather woes don’t overshadow holiday smiles in Samoa 

On September 29th 2009 a massive tsunami hit the islands of Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga, causing substantial damage and the loss of 189 lives.

Agility has long enjoyed a special relationship with the people of the Pacific Island nations, as business partners and friends. When news of the tsunami reached the team at Agility the first question asked was “How can we help?”

Over the following weeks the team at Agility’s Auckland, New Zealand, branch coordinated the shipment of relief supplies with the local Samoan community. Over five containers of goods were loaded and shipped by Agility to Samoa for organizations such as Society of St Vincent de Paul, the Auckland Samoan Catholic Parishes and the City of Palmerston North.

The Agility team was particularly keen to be involved with the Christmas in Samoa charity, where the team and members of the wider public donated toys, stationery and books to Samoan children in the tsunami affected Falealii, Poutasi and Matatufu district villages.

Doug Dennet, Agility Pacific Islands Trade Manager, said, “The children were overwhelmed by us arriving in our convoy led by a fire truck with Manu Somoa rugby legend Peter Fatialofa acting as Santa, assisted by Miss Samoa NZ Christina Fa’afeli, a large truck full of Christmas gifts and a bus full of our TS09 (Tsunami Samoa’09) team singing Christmas carols. We first met each of the village elders/matai in their main meeting fale (traditional Samoan building) and then proceeded to give each of the kids in the villages and schools presents and a lolly scramble. The resultant smiles and singing were something to behold.”

“The TS09 Team did a fantastic job spending last week delivering gifts and donations to all of the villages and schools along the Tsunami stricken coastline, including a ferry across to the badly hit Manono Island community,” Doug added.