How can I donate to Tonga?

The most urgent need in times of crisis is money, not stuff. No other type of donation can match its impact.

See below for information on how your donation to Tonga can be most effective.

How to send cash safely

• Use the same banks and businesses that you use to send remittances to impacted families or church communities in the Pacific.
• If you still want to collect stuff, convert it into cash in New Zealand by selling it at a garage sale, then send or donate the cash.
• Start up a Crowdfunder to raise money to send direct to family, friends or your chosen organisation.

Donating to trusted organisations

If you do want to donate to a charity, you can do so to one of the trusted organisations that make up the CID Humanitarian Network:

• • Caritas Aotearoa – working with Caritas Tonga
  • TearFund – working with Tonga National Council of Churches
  • ChildFund – supporting Red Cross
  • Rotary – working with MORDI (Mainstreaming of Rural Development Innovation Tonga Trust), and Mango Tree Centre
  • Habitat for Humanity – working with Caritas Tonga
  • ADRA – working with Seventh-Day Adventist Church Tonga
  • Christian World Service – working with Tonga Community Development Trust, and Ama Takiloa network of women's groups
  • Oxfam – working with Tonga National Youth Council, Tonga National Council of Churches (TNCC), Ma'a Fafine mo e Famili Inc. (MFF), and Tonga Leitis Association (TLA),
  • Anglican Missions – working with Anglican Church of Tonga
  • Christian Blind Mission (cbm) – working with Naunau o’e Alamaite Tonga Association (NATA),  Tonga National Visual Impairment Association (TNVIA), and Lavame’ata’e’iloa Association (LATA)
  • Volunteer Service Abroad – working with Vaiola Hospital, Mai E Nima (‘Give Me Five’), and ‘Uluaki Faiako Cooperation Society
  • World Vision - funds will be channelled through a partner who has a presence and is providing emergency assistance in Tonga
  • UNICEF
  • International Needs New Zealand – working with Oxfam Aotearoa and working with Tongan National Youth Congress
  • Save the Children - working with the Tongan Ministry of Education

Watch for this CID Code ‘Tick’ to signify to donors and the public that these CID-member aid agencies have met the accountability standards expected by the public.

The generosity of the New Zealanders following an emergency at home or in the Pacific is legendary. But we know from previous experience how disruptive goods sent by the public can be to a local emergency response.

 

After Tropical Cyclone Pam (2015) and Tropical Winston (2016) hundreds of containers filled with unrequested goods like teddy-bears, plastic bottles of water, perishable food and second-hand clothing, and even snow-skies were sent around the Pacific.

Much of it ended up in Pacific landfills. Local businesses desperate for customers, were undercut by overseas goods already available locally. Containers took up valuable wharf and then storage space, increasing costs to Pacific countries responding to the cyclone.

Please visit https://donateresponsibly.org/tonga-hit-tsunami-after-volcanic-eruption for more information and if you do want to send goods.