Almost 90 per cent of the buildings in the nation's capital Port Vila were damaged and the village of Tanna Island was completely flattened.

Through Shellharbour Community Church's Vanuatu Assist initiative more than 20 tonnes of building material has been donated and packed. It was shipped over on Monday, May 18.

"At the moment at Tanna Island we have mothers with their little babies pulling tarps over themselves to shield them from the rain," church minister Shane Cook said.

"The whole island was flattened and out of 112 schools there are only about nine operating at the moment.

"We wanted to help in a practical way and that was through building materials. We estimate that with the materials that have been donated we can build in excess of 250 huts."

Members of the church have been packing and collecting the materials for over six weeks and Mr Cook said the community response was "astounding".

"We have about $60,000 worth of materials and I can't believe the quality," he said.

"I'm amazed at how the community has rallied behind this. The response was overwhelming.

"We were planning to send the container at the end of June or early July, so we are five weeks ahead of schedule."

Some of the materials include 12-tonne roofing iron, 300 hygiene packs, 20,000 roofing screws, 300 sheets of 8-metre clip lock roofing, 400 3-metre sheets of colour bond roofing, 300 metres of poly pipe, 30 metres of guttering, generators and various building tools.