University of Otago Pacific Islands Centre manager Tofilau Nina Kirifi-Alai said the Samoan students' mood was sombre, with almost all of them getting grim news of relatives who died in the tsunami.
One second-year female student learned that 10 members of her extended family had died and she was preparing to return to Lalomanu village in the south of Samoa to be with her family, Mrs Kirifi-Alai said.
To help students through the grieving process a special service was held at 6.45am yesterday - the same time of day as Wednesday's quake and tsunami, which devastated much of the southern coastline.
Fifty of the 270 Samoan students at the university attended the service, which included prayers and hymns.
"It was a very sombre occasion," she said.
The centre had been overwhelmed by support from the public, with some donating food for students.
The centre was also helping to co-ordinate medical supplies for Samoa and offering "lots of prayers", she said.
Two university staff members, Dr Kim Maiai, the director of Student Health Services, and Dr Faafetai Sopoaga, Division of Sciences associate dean (Pacific), will go to Samoa next week to give medical assistance.
Dr Maiai said Samoan doctors "from various parts of the world" were heading to Samoa to help.
He would fly there on Tuesday to stay with family and help.
The Rev Posala Tioa, of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa in Dunedin, said he, like many of his parish, had lost extended family and people were agonising about returning to Samoa.
New Zealand-based family were expected to attend funerals of relatives in Samoa, but because of the sheer numbers involved it was possible bodies would be buried first, before funeral services.
