Tank yu tumas, Kiwanis, thank you
Girls at Eton school on the island-nation of Vanuatu are proud of the new-to-them desks that replace the wooden planks previously sufficing as study surfaces. And the students’ headmistress eagerly shows her campus’ gem: a library.
 |
School girls are proud of their new desks, which replace the crude planks that previously served as the students’ study surfaces. |
Volumes
of knowledge
New Zealand isn’t the only Kiwanis nation bringing volumes of knowledge to Vanuatu. After the Vanuatu Institute of Technology (VIT) built a new library, Kiwanians from Nouméa, New Caledonia, sent books and supplies to their Pacific island “neighbor” to fill VIT’s empty shelves.
“Here was a brand-new library with no books!” says Port Vila Kiwanian and VIT team leader Margaret MacFarlane. “The Nouméa club stocked all the shelves.
“We have set up other libraries in other schools (and in the public library) with Kiwanis books, and we’ve been able to teach parents about reading and offer adult literacy programs. Kiwanis has been just been pivotal when we’ve needed school material.”
Read also:
|
 |
Boxed books bear precious cargo and a greeting from New Zealand Kiwanians to the children of Vanuata.
|
Across the island, at a school off an off-road’s off-road, a teacher grins widely as his students unload box after box of books from the back of a Kiwanian’s SUV, stacking them on the naked shelves of a barren classroom.
Secondhand computers—75 of them—crowd the floor of an upper-grade schoolroom in capital city Port Vila, awaiting programming and use by students who attend the Vanuatu Institute of Technology.
Speaking their native Bislama, schoolchildren at Ulei Junior Secondary School say “tank yu tumas, Kiwanis.” Headmaster Kalnaune Kalfatak translates his pupils’ words and enthusiasm: “Thank you for the books! Thank you for the books!”
For the past few years, New Zealand Kiwanians have amassed, packed, and sent books, desks, computers, school supplies, and more to be distributed throughout the islands of Vanuatu by members of the Kiwanis Club of Port Vila, Vanuatu, their friends, and the United States Peace Corps.
“Our involvement began with just sending a pallet load of materials, and it has grown to more and more and more,” says Takapuna, New Zealand, Kiwanian Patsy Hill, who, along with her husband, Mike, is largely responsible for coordinating the shipping containers bound for Vanuatu children.
Patsy estimates it takes between nine months and a year to amass the supplies in New Zealand and prepare them for shipping. The process begins with New Zealand Kiwanians rallying one another to seek items, which range from soft toys to fiction and reference books, furniture, bedding, soccer balls, and computers. Many supplies are culled from area schools upgrading to new materials. Then, it’s on to Patsy and Mike’s garage, which gives up its normal car cargo to store the gear. Materials are packed in photocopy paper boxes (to ensure no box is too heavy to manage), and, when enough is collected, it’s time to pack an enormous shipping container.
Packing the shipping container is a carefully orchestrated process. Each box is assigned a number, and before it goes into the container, Patsy must record the box’s contents and estimated monetary value along with its corresponding number. The contents list allows the container to more easily pass through customs in Vanuatu so its items can make their way to the hands and minds that need them.
“You have got to have that list,” Patsy stresses. “And you have got to pack the container tight so nothing moves.”
The New Zealand clubs pitch in to pay the container’s NZ$2,000-$3,000 shipping cost.
“Our container missed its boat once—but that turned out to be a good thing, because that particular boat got stuck on a reef,” Patsy notes.
Once the container passes through customs in Vanuatu, Kiwanians there arrange for it to be unloaded and its contents stored. Kiwanians in Port Vila, along with Peace Corps volunteers distribute some of the items on Vila’s island of Efate. Most items, however, are sent to Vanuatu’s more remote islands, which receive fewer donated supplies in general.
“Some supplies go on with ‘yachties’ who are traveling to the outer islands,” Patsy explains.
And by the time the items are distributed, the New Zealand Kiwanians already are amassing supplies for the next run. So far, they have sent four containers to the islands.
The books and supplies are furthering an investment New Zealand Kiwanians made in Vanuatu’s students 10 years ago when the Kiwi Kiwanians used a Kiwanis International Foundation grant to financially—and physically—replace a roof at Ulei Junior Secondary School after a hurricane.
|
