Vital clothing and resources given by you, our amazingly generous Saints fans, have now arrived in Tonga and the unloading has begun!
At the end of February we appealed to you as part of our Saints Supporting Tonga campaign, asking for donations of old shirts, rugby balls and any other sports equipment to be sent over to Tonga after they were in desperate need of resources following a catastrophic tsunami.
Now we’re delighted to say your donations have been received in Tonga after it left St Helens in April!
St Helens have three Tongan players in our team – Konrad Hurrell, Will Hopoate and Agnatius Paasi who were personally affected by tsunami which struck on January 15 and impacted the entire population of the islands, approximately 105,000 people.
A message of thanks from NRL Tonga Manager Tavake Fangupo:
Not only did is destroy vital infrastructure, crops and water supplies but it demolished family homes.
Hurrell was particularly impacted by the natural disaster as he was unable to contact his loved ones for days.
Our Head Coach Kristian Woolf is also personally connected to Tonga as he is the Tongan National Coach and his team will be based in St Helens during the Rugby League World Cup.
Donations are starting to be distributed to the people of Tonga:
Hopefully Tonga can slowly start to rebuild after the tsunami with the help of your donations.
This wouldn’t have been possible without your amazing generosity, as well as the support from our partners Home Bargains, the Red Cross charity and distribution company Warrant Group for helping us with our appeal and getting the container over to Tonga.
Thank you so much for your continued support!
