A Fiji family is mourning the loss of their son after he was killed in the devastating tornado that hit South Auckland on Saturday.

Mechanic Janesh Prasad was working at a freight hub when the tornado swept him up and he struck a container.

Prasad was carrying out repairs when the tornado hit.

• READ MORE: Concern for South Auckland residents displaced by tornado

He leaves a wife and two children aged 13 and 10.

Family friend Reg Prasad described him as a much-loved man.

“It’s an absolutely terrible shock to his family and his wife is absolutely shattered,” Reg Prasad said.

“Wonderful person — he’s got two beautiful kids, young kids growing up.

“He’s just one of these people who just helps out other people in this world, and a wonderful husband to Mala.

“The daughter is obviously very distressed. The younger son, it hasn’t sunk in quite yet,” Reg Prasad said.

Janesh Prasad hails from Fiji’s northern town of Labasa.

His father, Ram Naresh, told local media the family was devastated and had been left without any means of support.

Naresh said Janesh was his eldest son and the family breadwinner.

Janesh had lived in Vuci, Nausori, before leaving for New Zealand in 2014, Naresh said.

The 75-year-old said he last spoke with his son two weeks ago and Janesh was concerned about his parent’s well-being due to the covid-19 outbreak in Fiji.

Naresh said his son was a hardworking man who looked after his family well.

Naresh said he would have to rely on the government to take care of his 67-year-old wife and their disabled daughter.

He also said he would not be able to attend his son’s funeral due to the covid restrictions.

Meanwhile, Reg Prasad has started a Givealittle page to support the family. By Monday, it had raised NZ$44,000.

“We are just so grateful for all New Zealanders to support this family,” he said.

“We’ve had people bringing food, supporting, strangers coming up to the houses and helping out, got a huge network of support coming in at the moment.”

A blessing took place on Sunday at the site where Janesh Prasad had died.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The New Zealand government is being told to roll out clearer and smarter communications around the latest covid-19 community outbreak, to make sure they are reaching into every corner, and culture of the country.

South Aucklanders spoken to by RNZ Checkpoint last night have expressed their disappointment that some of the region’s newest cases broke lockdown rules and advice to stay at home after being tested.

But Manukau councillor Fa’anana Efeso Collins says some covid-19 messages are simply not getting through in one of Aotearoa’s most multicultural centres.

• LISTEN: Clearer messaging needed for multicultural areas – Checkpoint (Duration 4′:49″)

“We need a clear South Auckland communications engagement strategy,” Collins told Checkpoint.

“We should be working with organisations like South Seas, Vision West, Anglican Trust for Women and Children, who can reach into the community and hand over the information.

“The bureaucrats have to let this go. They will cost us the war if they don’t let go of this now. They’ve got to let go of this power and trust the community to get the information to our households.”

Collins said there need to be more people in the Manukau area, delivering information about Covid-19 in person.

‘People respond to relationships’
“People respond to relationships. What we don’t have is people on the ground… out there making sure the message gets to our families.

“We’ve got to go directly into the home, speak the languages that are spoken in the families – Punjabi, Hindi, Samoan and Tongan – and make sure people really understand this.

Manukau councillor Fa’anana Efeso Collins talks about covid-19 messaging. Video: RNZ News

“Young people are on social media all the time. They’re going to understand Instagrams, we should be TikToking this information. That’s the kind of stuff we should be doing.

“But that’s the problem when you’ve got the bureaucracy handling it.”

In a post-cabinet briefing, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said they were very conscious of the need to ensure everyone was aware of alert level changes, and they worked with the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, Te Puni Kōkiri, and office of ethnic communities to get those messages out.

“I’m on a group of MPs where we look at ‘have we done a translation of the alert level changes, have we got it in multiple languages, across social media sites, so do in earnest make sure we’re not just utilising mainstream media, and nor are we just communicating in English.

Really grateful for the feedback I’ve received last few days with my take on the need for clarity in community messaging & how we navigate sometimes tense conversations. We all play a key role so stay well and safe famz.

— Efeso Collins (@efesocollins) March 1, 2021

‘People spread the word’
“We also of course use things like Civil Defence Emergency notifications to let people know what we’re expecting of them and of course people spread the word themselves as well, and we try and use our team as social and community leaders to spread that message and ask others to do the same.”

Asked about confusion on advice and guidance at alert level 3, Ardern said advice had remained the same throughout, but the only difference this time was being more cautious with casual contacts due to the more infectious nature of the UK variant.

However, councillor Fa’anana said local community organisations were in a better place to get the message across.

He said he had seen evidence the communications from Wellington were not getting into all South Auckland homes.

“I still have people who ring and say, ‘can we still have lunch and come over to your house after church’. Church was online.”

With the virus continuing to pop up in South Auckland, Fa’anana said priority vaccinations in the region should be given serious thought.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.