SEVEN hundred members of the Fiji Teachers Union in the Western, Central and Northern divisions were badly affected by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston last month.

And the FTU’s credit union has already assisted 400 members with soft loans.

Out of the 4500 union members, more than 500 teachers lost their homes and belongings during the cyclone.

FTU general secretary Agni Deo Singh said it was hard for the union to hear about the ordeal that the affected teachers had gone through.

“It was an emotional thing to listen to their stories and to hear them losing everything in just one night, it was just heart-rending,” Mr Singh said.

“Despite the large number of union members being affected by the cyclone, they tried to be back in their various schools cleaning up so that children could start their classes again.

“We have our own credit union that has assisted our members in rebuilding their lives and we have assisted more than 400 members with soft loans so far.”

He said the members who were worst affected were from Rakiraki, Tavua, Ba, North Tailevu, Koro and Taveuni.

“We will try and reach out to our members in remote and outer islands in the next couple of weeks, so they can start school again,” Mr Singh said.