Recycle - Relocate - Repurpose !!
Pacific Pathways continue to help the schools in Vanuatu by shipping containers of donated educational resources no longer needed by schools in New Zealand
School furniture
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Our 11th shipping container has just landed in Santo, Vanuatu
The container was filled with desks/chairs donated by Lynfield College, Auckland and playground equipment donated by Park Supplies & Playgrounds, Auckland. This is very timely, when I received a message from the Provincial Education Officer for Samna, Mr Thompson Paul. “ Your help with desks and chairs would be greatly appreciated. I refer to a comment made by the Prime Minister of Vanuatu; After a recent visit to Penama province, the Prime Miniter said, …. upon his visit to Sanma next, he does not want to see children sitting on the floor without chairs as seen in Penama !! The desks & chairs will be distributed to schools in the Sanma province with preference to the schools in remote areas. The playground equipment will help out playground initiative, with the first playground being built at Aore Yumi Community School & kindy on Aore Island Pacific Pathways, thank Rotary NZ Word Community Service for your funding support, which made this all possible and Swire shipping for their generous charity discount. We pass on the thanks and warm appreciation from the Ministry of Education, the teachers and the pikinini “ Tank yu tumas everiwan long support blong yu long pikinini blong Vanuatu ”. 
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'Learn to Play, Play to Learn'
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Pacific Pathways helping with the recovery & rebuild after the
'twin' Tropical Cyclones Judy & Kevin 2023 - 2024
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Paama island : 'Water for Life 'Paama Island, suffered major damage to water supplies and water catchment, making it extremely difficult to access safe drinking water after the twin cyclones Judy & Kevin.
Safe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene are crucial to human health and well-being. Safe water is not only a prerequisite to health, but contributes to livelihoods, school attendance and dignity. It helps to create resilient communities living in healthy environments. In response to the damaged caused by the twin cyclones Judy & Kevin, Pacific Pathways have put in place sustainable water solutions. To ensure the people of Paama have access to a reliable and sustainable water supply and safe drinking water. Working with the Vanuatu Department of Water Resources, Chief of Chief's and the Area Administrator for Paama, we have put in place: Water catchments with 10,000 litre water catchments for 8 communities across Paama and a revised and extended Gravity system with 10,000 litre water x2 catchments for Lulep a remote community on the east coast of Paama. Communities also have the sawyer tap water filters for back up during extreme situations. This project was made possible with funding support from a grant funding partnership with : Ministry of Foreign Affairs NZ (Disaster Response Partnership) and Rotary NZ WCS. 
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Futuna Island: suffered total devastationFutuna, is a small island in south Vanuatu, which suffered major damage, causing devastation for most families on the small island, most lost their homes and gardens.
We were deeply saddened as we tracked the movement of the cyclones across Futuna Island, a small island only 11m2 in south Vanuatu. We have friends from this island and instantly realised they would need help, so we contacted the Area Administrator to ask what help was needed. Futuna Area Council, acknowledged that their immediate needs (food, water and medical resources) were being delivered by the larger NGO’s . In response the community asked for help to repair the Fish Market House and solar panels which run the deep freeze. The Fish Market House is central to the community. The people of Futuna are known as the ‘People of the Sea’, because of their fishing expertise. They spend almost everyday fishing in their boats, canoes or using traditional fishing techniques. They recognise the importance of fish as a good source of protein for the family diet and half of their income comes from their fishing activities. With thanks to the generous donations from our supporters through ’Give A Little’ NZ, and donations from Dunedin Harbour Rotary and Garden City Christchurch Rotary.
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Pacific Pathways helping with the recovery & rebuild after cyclone Harold
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Pacific Pathways helping with the recovery & rebuild after cyclone Pam
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The founders of Pacific Pathways, Sue & David Mitchell, live on Aore Island, near Santo, and experienced the category 5 cyclone Harold first-hand as the eye of the cyclone tracked over Aore.
'We woke to total devastation and witnessed the communities struggling to come to terms with the devastation surrounding them. Their houses & gardens destroyed and wondering how they would manage to put food on the table.' We realised the need for help was at the village level, so we set up an initiative to help the ‘Families First’. This initiative was set up to help the 200 families living on Aore and focused on their immediate needs, livelihoods and agricultural humanitarian needs, to help restore food security, dignity & quality of life. Follow the link below to follow this story ... 
This family lost 2 of their 3 buildings, the familiy is sleeping in the back of their small store/shop.
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On the 13th of March 2015
Cyclone Pam a category 5, caused major damage and devastation across Vanuatu. At this time, we were in NZ and were in fact packing a container bound for Vanuatu. We continued to receive donations of school resources and building materials and managed to fill x 3 containers. Pacific Pathways recognised that the smaller outer island were in need of assistance. We met with the Ministry of Education and proposed to help Paama Island a small island in Malampa Province. We were based on Paama for 3 years living with the communities as we worked together on our cyclone recovery & rebuilding projects. Where we rebuilt a primary school, 5 kindy's and 3 evacuation centres. Follow the link below to follow this story .. 
Our first glimpse of the Lulep Village east coast Paama and the damage caused by cyclone Pam. This was our first cyclone rebuild project.
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The families living on the western end of Aore receive their garden tools, seeds, seedling trays and vegetable cuttings donated by Pacific Pathways.
Pacific Pathways have been helping schools & kindy's (Bislama for preschool)
in Vanuatu since 2010.
Ministry of Education welcome the container No.9 full of resources: Desks, chairs & books donated by schools in Christchurch, New Zealand Feb 2018
A boy from Ban Ban School, Luganville, enjoys his new desks.
" I like my desk I can put my books inside"
Aore Yumi Kindy, Aore Island near Santo, built 2017
Vauleli Kindy, Vauleli. Rebuilt after cyleone Pam,
May 2016
Luvil Kindy, Lulep, Paama Island rebuilt after cyclone Pam rebuilt Sep/Oct 2015. This was our first cyclone Pam reuild project.
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1) RECYCLE - RELOCATE - RE-USE with a RENEWED purpose
What started as a small gesture of taking some books to help a school in Vanuatu has developed into a major initiative relocating school resources no longer required in schools around New Zealand and giving them a renewed purpose helping schools and preschools in Vanuatu. In 2022 we shipped our 12th container of donated schools furniture and resources. 2) BUILD community kindy's
We continue to help build community kindy's in Vanuatu. Kindergarten ( kindy in Bislama), preschool for years 4 & 5 are the responsibility of the community. This is often difficult financially, so most kindy's in the smaller remote communities and outer islands are made with local timbers and materials. They have a short lifespan and they do not stand up to cyclone's. Our kindy project in 2017 was on Aore Island (just off Santo) The community had actively managed to raise half the amount needed to build a kindy accordingly to the specifications of the Ministry of Education in Vanuatu. Pacific Pathways helped to raise the balance for this project. The most fun part of the build was the painting the outside of the kindy. This was done by the community and it looks great. 
Aore Yumi Kindy community artwork from the sea
Luli Kindy, east coast Paama Island. A remote village only accessed by boat, on a calm day.
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Ashburton Intermediate, New Zealand send their love to Vanuatu after cyclone Pam, 2015.
They also had a fund raiser to help towards the cost of sending our containers of donated school furniture & resources to Vanuatu.
FInd out more about our projects helping Vanautu
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Facebook
I will be keeping our Facebook page up to date as our projects evolve www.facebook.com/PacificPathwaysNZ |
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