Father believes his daughter is safe

CANBERRA – The father of an Australian teenage girl missing in cyclone devastated Vanuatu is optimistic she is alive and helping rebuild the remote village where she is working.

Zoe Marshall – from Canberra – went to Pentecost Island with the volunteer organisation Lattitude in February on a self-funded gap year.

The 18-year-old has been unaccounted for since the category five Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu last week.

Father Rob Marshall said he has had semi-regular contact with her via SMS over the last two months, but nothing since the cyclone hit the island.

“There has been no communication with Pentecost at all. So no-one can tell us anything,” he said.

“We’ve seen some information from the ADF (Australian Defence Force) about a flyover they did a couple of days ago which indicated that they thought that the damage on Pentecost didn’t look as bad –certainly not as bad as places like Port Vila or Tanna.

“So that certainly made us feel a lot better.”

Marshall said he was confident Zoe was safe.

“We think she is probably there helping rebuild, teaching the kids she was working with and waiting for communications to be turned back on,” he said.

Marshall said on all accounts Zoe had been enjoying her time in the remote village before the cyclone hit.

“She went there with eyes very wide open to see if she could help out,” he said.

“She thinks it is fantastic, she has been having a great time,” her father said.