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After Fiji was hit by Cyclone Winston, UNI Europa offered support to the victims at the UNI Europa Conference in Rome. UNI Global Union  has worked with Fijian affiliates and UNI APRO to provide medical supplies and food to victims of the tragedy.

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings said, “We mourn the victims and offer our sincere condolences to families of this unfolding tragedy. Once again, we are seeing ordinary hardworking people suffer the increasingly venomous consequences of climate change.”

“We must all make a global push to deliver on the promises of COP21. The UNI Global Union family will provide the support we can to our Fijian affiliates and friends.”

Cyclone Winston is thought to be one of the strongest storms ever to hit the Southern Hemisphere and has left 44 people dead, 50,000 and 8,500 sheltering in evacuation centres. Food supplies and housing has been destroyed, with the backbone of the Fijian economy, the sugarcane industry, likely to record an $83 million dollar loss.

The Red Cross has warned that the death toll could still rise further with the risks posed by diseases such as Typhoid, Dengue fever and other communicable diseases. This is why it is so important that medical supplies, shelter and food supplies are delivered quickly and efficiently to prevent the situation worsening.