Fiji: Close to $200,000 worth of relief items have been distributed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad Fiji (VHP Fiji) to those being affected by Tropical Cyclone Winston in various areas in the country.

The VHP Fiji is a charitable organisation that looks after the needs of the needy. VHP's main headquarters is in India. In Fiji it is self-funded mainly supported by members of their charity.

The organisation was among the first to start assisting Fijians affected on the day after the cyclone.

VHP Fiji president Jay Dayal said: "We expect by end of this week we would have given out close to $200,000 worth of relief items to the people.

"Even today our relief is still going on and other donors have also been giving out food.

"Our focus has also been the farming community. They have suffered a great lost, agricultural wise and rehabilitation.

"Some houses have been blown away and some of them are not members of FNPF (Fiji National Provident Fund) so they have no other means to rehabilitate and totally dependent on other people for assistance."

"Our group of volunteers visited people, clear debris and distributed cook food to lot of places and homes," he said.

They prepared and distributed one thousand ration packs that would last for at least two weeks to people in Ba, Tavua, Rakiraki and Savusavu.

The story was first published in Fiji Sun Online