Transcript
The director of the Fiji charity FRIEND Sashi Kiran KIH-run says floods and non stop rain since the end of last year have meant continued strife for people at Winston's "Ground Zero" in Ra province on the main island Viti Levu.
She says a huge proportion of people in Nakorotubu and Saivou districts are still living in tents and many have only received grants for rebuilding in the last few weeks.
"It's miserable. Small babies, older people, water just floods through and they end up sleeping on some of these wet floors because there's very little option."
The area's evacuation centres - schools and halls - were destroyed during Winston and have yet to be replaced.
"It has been very exhausting the whole year for them so they're getting sort of adapted to living like this but yes there's a lot more sickness. You'll see much more fungal growth with the wetness all the time. Much more skin diseases we are seeing. We have been told that the violence has increased because there is also the sense of 'how do we even support out families?'."
FRIEND has been helping the communities set up organic farms and get out fishing again.
Some areas have seen up to 90 percent damage, including to cash crops.
"We are seeing people are absolutely struggling to make ends meet, Whether it's food, schooling needs, medical needs, whatever little money they've saved they've been running to hardware supplies in Suva, running round trying to get their homes together. So it's been difficult."
Josefa Tuilau is the chief of Tuatua village on Koro Island which also took a direct hit.
Huge tidal surges and monstrous winds left just three homes standing in the village of 270 people.
The government's replaced their fishing gear and charities have helped rebuild toilets and water supplies but it's still tough.
"We are still struggling. Some of us are still living in tents. Oh, we have so many problems. Before the cyclone our main source of income are root crops, especially dalo and kava (yaqona), so we have no money."
The chief says 14 people died on Koro, half of them in Nasau, the village next door.
The anniversary is a sad day, he says, for the whole island.
"People in Nasau will do the same thing we will do here. They are also building their memorial and they will also have a church service in memory for those who died."
A year on and half the damaged homes on Yacata island have been rebuilt.
A community leader there Penioni Toga says the people learnt a lot from the New Zealand defence force which reconstructed Yacata's school and health centre after Winston.
"They've been rebuilt to a standard that we feel is more stronger than what we had before, hoping that we can meet another hurricane that may be coming round the corner. We are getting to be very cautious with what we construct."
Penioni Toga says the islanders have been resourceful, milling their own timber and getting help from the many Yacatans who live offshore.
He says going through Winston has had its advantages.
"I was on the island 12 hours before the hurricane struck. I found out that nothing was done. They were too casual about it. So those are issues that need to be addressed. After this we have seen that they have changed their mindset."
400 schools were ruined or damaged in the cyclone and hundreds of children are still learning in tents.
But the government has brushed off criticism the rebuild's taking too long.
The deputy Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told parliament this month 80 percent of the schools are now under construction or near completion and that has been no mean feat..
"It's not simply a matter of putting up a wall and painting it and saying look wow we've got a school and the next time some small wind comes along and blows it down again. We don't want that. We want the schools to be able to withstand winds of high speed as I've highlighted. We don't want them to be blown down again."
Mr Sayed-Khaiyium says the shortage of material and builders has contributed to delays.
He says so far 28,000 people have received government rebuilding grants of up to 3,400 US dollars.
The government has been pushing the message that Fiji is building back better and says its anniversary day will focus on being resilient and learning from the disaster.
The Fiji Red Cross chief Filipe Nainoca says it's been a very difficult year but people have shown resilience.
"Today people still speak about their experience with tears in their eyes. The impact was so severe that it still impacts them one year later."
Counselling villagers remains a big part of the job for Red Cross volunteers.
"They split up into pairs and visit each home and then in the evening they have a community event where the different members of the households talk about and discuss and work through how they can become more resilient."
The anniversary of Cyclone Winston will be marked by a commemoration service in Suva and a minute's silence for the 44 people who died.
