Cycling for Cyclone Pam

One evening, local men, young and old, were gathered around the ‘nakamal’ (meeting place) in Whitesands village, Tanna, Vanuatu. A young Australian researcher sat with them. He was a visitor at first, but they very quickly welcomed him into their families and village life. This warm welcome is still pervasive after 7 years of return trips. That particular evening, they were discussing life in Australia and Europe. The local men were curious about “homelessness”, and they puzzled over how it could come to be so. They could not understand the concept that a community would not look after its own people. Their solution to homelessness in Sydney and Australia was to “send them over here [to Tanna]. We’ll take care of them. We have houses and food that we can share and help them out with.”

On Friday 13th March 2015, the largest known tropical cyclone in the Pacific tore through this community and countless others in Vanuatu, destroying everything in its path. These villagers who were so happy to help others, no longer have any houses, no food, no safe water supply. They have nothing left. They are in serious need of help.

Jeremy Hammond (that researcher) and Adam D’Andreti are Cycling for Cyclone Pam to raise funds for the people on the islands of Tanna and Aniwa, in Vanuatu, to help them rebuild their communities.

To show their commitment to easing the devastation that has affected these communities, the pedalling pair plan to ride the equivalent of ascending Mt Everest in one day. That means 8848 vertical metres over 305 kilometres, representing the >300km/h wind gusts recorded. They will ride non-stop for more than 15 hours. They believe a challenge like this is nothing compared to the hardship the ni-Vanuatu will go through over the next few years rebuilding their lives.

For generations, the community has been self-sustaining. The people on Tanna are subsistence farmers – they grow crops specifically to feed themselves rather than for industry or income. Although a large network of sharing and reciprocal relationships exists to help with crop shortages in times of need, the devastation from Cyclone Pam was so widespread that the traditional networks of support are not sufficient to allow these communities to rebuild by themselves.

With your help, Jeremy and Adam hope to raise $20,000. This donation would allow the communities to buy enough housing materials to rebuild 20 homes.

How can we help?
There are five ways people can help
1) Donate directly to CARE Australia or UNICEF Australia from this page, both organisations are coordinating responses to the Cyclone Pam disaster.
2) If you prefer funds to go directly to the communities and you know Jeremy personally, please contact Jez. He will be sending money directly to the communities he knows on Tanna and Aniwa, and can help you do the same. Jeremy will send donations to families in need so that they can buy housing materials to rebuild their houses, including cement, timber, fittings and water supply equipment. The aid agencies will do a good job of making sure these people have food and clean water to hold them over, but rebuilding their houses is the next priority and they don’t have the cash to pay for that. In addition their local environment can’t support this burden either.
3) Come along for the ride on the day:
Easter Sunday, 5 April 2015
Start 4:30am
Finish approx. 7:30pm
Akuna Bay, NSW
You don’t have to ride all 305km, but we’d love you to come along for part of it. We’ll be riding from 4:30am until about 7:30pm, non-stop. Follow us on twitter @jeremy5211.
4) Come along on the day and enjoy a picnic with the supporters. Best place to park is Illawong Bay
5) If you work in agriculture or construction and are looking for staff, please get in contact with Jeremy. The men and women on Tanna are extremely hard-working and loyal. They would very much appreciate the opportunity to come to Australia to earn money to help rebuild their communities.

Jeremy's note: The photos here are of better times and show how sharing is such an important part of their world.

Adam's note: Like all of us, I was shocked by the impact of the storm and the devastation it has wrought to the lives of so many. It particularly struck home for me having heard so much about the people from Jez’s years of study amongst them. In this small way, I’d love to put my passion for cycling to a truly worth end – please help support our fundraise and help make a massive difference to the lives of so many, who now have so little.

We also want to thank the partners of Gilbert+Tobin for their kind promise to match, dollar for dollar, each donation made by anyone from G+T.

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RIDE REPORT:

To give you a sense of how we went, here are some of the key stats from the day:

Start time: 4.45am
Finish time: 11pm
Total hours riding during that time: 13+ hours each

Our combined vertical metres scaled: 12,452m
Combined number of laps (ie up and down Akuna Bay hill): 68
Combined total km ridden: 464km
Number of laps ridden in support by our mates: 26 in total (thanks guys!)

And individually:

Jeremy

Total laps: 35
Total vertical ascent: 6,365m
Total km ridden: 240km
Total # of whinges: 12

Adam

Total laps: 33
Total vertical ascent: 5,917m
Total km ridden: 225km
Total # of moments he questioned his sanity and judgement: 33

Jez has done lots of crazy races in his time but says that this is without doubt the most difficult and unrelentless bike leg he has ever done (although Adam can’t claim to have the same adventure racing pedigree, he agrees – we basically belted ourselves up a hill for 20 minutes then flew down as fast as we could to start it all over again).

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