vista_may 2012

VSA’s window on the world of development issue one 2012

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As we began planning our 50th anniversary celebrations earlier this year, I found myself wondering how many volunteers had set off on assignment since I started my job in 2004. A quick check of our database came up with a figure of 458 volunteers and 28 accompanying partners, of whom 83 are currently on assignment. Another 20 are scheduled to leave in the next few months.

For me, it was a good way of getting my head around what VSA has achieved since 1962. If the many extraordinary volunteers I have been lucky enough to meet during eight years can achieve so much, it’s hardly surprising that VSA has been so successful over the past 50 years.

A 50th anniversary is a great opportunity to celebrate the past, and to think about what lies ahead. It’s also been a chance for us to reflect on what makes VSA the organisation it is today.

When we first started sorting through our archive of volunteer photographs to select images for our anniversary exhibition, Windows to Another World, it was tempting to focus on how much had changed over the last 50 years. Our younger staff were amused by the big hair and shoulder pads sported by our 1980s volunteers. Those of us who are a little older were surprised to see young male school leavers from the 1960s wearing suits and ties. We all had a laugh at the flares and maxi skirts from the 1970s.

But as we narrowed down the selection of photographs a number of common themes began to emerge, whatever decade the photo came from. These eventually became the five themes that have shaped Windows to Another World – Work, Learn, Play, Belong and Eat.

For me, these five themes encapsulate what VSA is all about. Like any organisation, VSA has changed over the last 50 years. In the early days our volunteers taught in classrooms or filled hands-on roles in agriculture. Today, they are experienced professionals who share their skills and knowledge to achieve exceptional things with our partners.

But our core values are still the same – and it is by adhering to these values that we continue to work with our partners to achieve lasting change.

This is the last time I will write in Vista. I am finishing my job as CEO at the end of July. Like many of our volunteers I’m ready to create some new challenges for myself. The Council is now in the process of selecting a new CEO. I wish my successor all the best – he or she is lucky to be joining such a wonderful organisation.

Deborah Snelson, CEO

Te-na- koutou o Te Tu- ao Ta-wa-hi

Volunteer Service Abroad works

with people in the wider Pacific

adding the skills and energy of

New Zealanders to strengthen

communities striving for change.

About VSA VSA (Volunteer Service Abroad) is a home-grown Kiwi volunteering organisation and

has placed more than 3,500 skilled New Zealanders on volunteer assignments

overseas since 1962.

We recruit ordinary New Zealanders to achieve exceptional work with our partner organisations. Our work is locally identified,

locally relevant and locally delivered.

We are an independent charity and are non-governmental, non-religious and

non-political.

Become a VSA volunteerGo to www.vsa.org.nz to find out about

application criteria, to register your skills, or to see what assignments are being advertised.

Become a VSA supporterWe send people not money, but we need

money to send people. Visit www.vsa.org.nz to donate or to find out about becoming a

VSA member.

Join a local VSA branchPhone 0800 VSA TO GO (0800 872 8646)

for details of the branch nearest you.

Te Tu-ao Ta-wa-hi Volunteer Service Abroad Inc is a registered charity (CC36739) under the

Charities Act 2005

The New Zealand Government is proud to provide significant support through the

New Zealand Aid Programme for New Zealand volunteers who work in a development

capacity overseas.

Kia ora

Te Tu-ao Ta-wa-hi Volunteer Service AbroadPatron: His Excellency Lieutenant General The Right Honourable Sir Jerry Mateparae GNZM, QSO,

Governor-General of New Zealand President: Gavin Kerr, QSO Kauma-tua: Awi Riddell (Nga-ti Porou), QSM Council Chair: Farib Sos, MNZN Council members: Don Higgins (Deputy Chair), Professor Tony Binns,

Susan Hinkley, Dr Simon Mark, Evan Mayson, Sandy Stephens MNZN Chief Executive Officer: Deborah Snelson

Te Tu-ao Ta-wa-hi Volunteer Service Abroad, 32 Waring Taylor St, PO Box 12246, Wellington 6144 AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

Tel: 64 4 472 5759 Fax: 64 4 472 5052 Email: [email protected] Website: www.vsa.org.nz

Vista is the official magazine of Te Tu-ao Ta-wa-hi Volunteer Service Abroad Incorporated. Please note that views expressed in Vista are not necessarily the views of VSA. Editorial and photographic submissions to the magazine

are welcome. Please address all queries and submissions to the Editor, Vista, at the address above. Please ensure all material is clearly marked with your name and address.

© VSA. All rights reserved. ISSN 1176-9904 Reproduction of content is allowed for usage in primary and secondary schools, and for tertiary studies.

Vista is printed on environmentally responsible paper. It is chlorine free and manufactured using farmed eucalyptus trees.

contentsVista issue one 2012

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CoNVSAtIoN News, views and happenings

FeAture Ruth Nichol talks to a mother and daughter who volunteered 44 years apart.

From the Field VSA volunteer Leigh Joyce profoundly affected one man’s life.

From the Field Bill Hardie reflects on his early morning walks in Dili.

From the Field Janna Candy is impressed by the can-do attitude of farmers in Bougainville.

FeAture VSA’s programme in Cambodia ends after 20 years.

GrowING Support The latest news from our fundraising team.

Photo exhibition Dates and locations for our 50th anniversary exhibition.

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1Vista issue one 2012

Tupaia: The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook’s Polynesian NavigatorBy Joan Druett (Random House New Zealand, 2012)Reviewed by Peter Swain

On 6 October 1769 Nicholas Young spied the East coast of Aotearoa New Zealand from the masthead of the HMS Endeavour under the command of Captain James Cook.

Cook’s own journals and charts, and the many later accounts of his voyages of discovery across the Pacific, have established his reputation as the greatest European navigator of his era. But there was an earlier tradition he drew on, a tradition that Cook failed to acknowledge.

In April 1769 Cook had arrived in Tahiti. At Raiatea he met Tupaia an ari’i, a high-born chief. Tupaia had trained as a star navigator, a way-finder, the inheritor of the long tradition of Polynesian navigation. He navigated Cook around the islands, sharing his

Our Ladi of Friendship VSA Project Friendship’s ambassador for 2012, hip-hop and soul artist Ladi6, has a special connection with VSA.

As a teenager she spent a year living in Tanzania where her parents, Vic and Losa Tamati, worked as VSA volunteers. In fact, it was while she was living in Tanzania that Ladi learned how to play the guitar and wrote her first song.

Project Friendship 2012 runs from 6–12 August, and this year’s event is shaping up to be our most successful yet.

As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations, Project Friendship 2012 features a photo competition in which entrants have to take a photo that demonstrates friendship through sharing skills and helping each other. The lucky winner will get a digital camera worth more than $300.

For more information about Project Friendship 2012, go to www.vsa.org.nz/what-you-can-do/schools-and-youth

ancient knowledge. “So precise was Tupaia’s dead reckoning, and so retentive his memory, at any moment, day or night, he was able to point accurately to the position of Tahiti.” At one point he drew from memory a chart showing all the major island groups from the Marquesas to Fiji.

Cook took Tupaia on his voyage south. Tupaia spoke directly to Maori who understood him perfectly. His name and story survives in Maori oral tradition. He was the first Polynesian to visit Australia. Tupaia was Cook’s navigator, interpreter, translator, adviser, and intermediary in a clash of cultures. Tupaia died in Batavia, today’s Jakarta, his contributions to Cook’s expedition unacknowledged. His story was lost for over 200 years.

Joan Druett, a maritime historian, has researched and written the remarkable story of Tupaia. This is a powerful narrative of first contact, cultural misunderstandings and appropriation.

Peter Swain is VSA’s International Programme Manager

Girls can do anything The arrival of Alison Turner as country programme manager in Bougainville in March means that VSA’s five in-country staff are all now women. Alison, a two-time volunteer, took over from Murray Benbow, who is happily settling back into life in New Zealand

– “One thing I’m really enjoying is the New Zealand weather.”

For Alison, getting used to island life has been remarkably easy – when she’s not working for VSA she lives on the Chatham Islands.

“A lot of things actually work better here than they do in the Chathams,” she says.

In January, Alexa Funnell (below) replaced Steve Hamilton as country programme manager in the Solomon Islands. Alexa, who previously worked as a programme officer in VSA’s Wellington office, is enjoying the diversity of culture within the Solomon Islands – and the varied, interesting and challenging workload.

“I often think back to what we tell volunteers at briefings about being flexible, adaptable and patient, and try to practice this myself.”

Steve is now living in Wellington, working for MFAT on the Papua New Guinea desk.

Alison and Alexa join our other overseas-based country programme managers, Hannah Stewart in Papua New Guinea, Karen Horton in Timor-Leste and Diane Thorne-George in Vanuatu.

Keeping up the side for men is Polynesia programme manager Junior Ulu (above). However, while Junior travels regularly to Samoa and Tonga, at this stage he is still based in Wellington.

Vista issue one 20122

CoNVSAtIoN

Share your story In January we appealed for stories and photos from our returned volunteers as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations.

We’ve had a great response so far. From diverting volcanic debris to teaching thermodynamics, from playing rugby to dealing with the Tongan biting centipede, our volunteers have kept themselves busy over the past 50 years.

The ‘then’ and ‘now’ photos of the volunteers are entertaining too – if you look closely enough you can see they are of the same person.

If you’d like to share your volunteering story – or read stories from our alumni – go to www.vsa.org.nz/blog/alumni-stories

Like most graphic designers, VSA’s designer Alana McCrossin loves typography and she’s always on the lookout for new and unusual typefaces.

Over the last couple of years she’s been collecting photos of hand-painted signs taken by our volunteers and storing them in a folder on her computer called ‘Typography from the field’.

“I really like how quirky the signs are, and that they are so laboriously painted onto buildings and shop fronts that are often old or crumbling down,” she says.

Alana was sure the photos would come in handy one day – and she was right. Hand-painted lettering from six of the signs feature in VSA’s 50th anniversary photo exhibition, Windows to Another World, which opens in Wellington on 6 June.

Alana has used the lettering to create the display fonts for the main headings in the exhibition – including a font created from the lettering in the Tanzanian sign pictured above.

Getting the hand-painted lettering into a usable form was a time-consuming process. Alana enlarged the letters from the photographs, printed them out, then redrew them by hand, either by painting them freehand or by making stencils. She then scanned them back into her computer to create a set of unique fonts.

You can see the results of Alana’s hard work at the exhibition, which is being held in four cities during June and July.

The dates and venues for Windows to Another World are:

Wellington 6–15 JuneAsteron Centre, cnr Featherson & Bunny St

AucklAnd 18–24 JuneAustralis Room, Britomart, 36 Customs St East

nelson 4–13 JulyNelson Provincial Museum, cnr Trafalgar & Hardy St

dunedin 17–27 JulyCommunity Gallery, 20 Princess St

Images from Vanuatu For Katy Buess spending two years living in Vanuatu was a formative experience both personally and as an artist.

The Invercargill printmaker originally went to Vanuatu in 2008 as an accompanying partner with her husband Rob Wait. She then became a volunteer in her own right, working as an art programme adviser at Stade medium security prison in Port Vila.

Since returning to New Zealand she has found herself incorporating Melanesian colours and designs into her work.

“Being in Vanuatu had a huge influence on me,” she says. “It has also taken me in a new direction; although I still do a lot of printmaking I have also started making paper sculpture based on salusalu – the garlands that NiVanuatu make out of leaves.”

Katy has donated three of her prints to VSA to help with our 50th anniversary fundraising activities. Two of them – Laebri (library) and Kenu (canoe) – are prizes in the VSA 50th anniversary raffle. The third, Kapkap Long Tingting Blong Mi (kapkap of my imagination) will be auctioned at the volunteer reunion dinner being held at Congress on 10 November.

First prize in the 50th anniversary raffle is flights for two to Vanuatu and seven nights’ accommodation at Warwick Le Lagoon and Spa in Port Vila. Raffle tickets are available through VSA branches or at the 50th anniversary photo exhibition, Windows to Another World.

To view the prints go to Katy Buess’ website www.swisters.com


CoNVSAtIoN

MArch 1962

A group of more than 50 people meet at Victoria University to discuss ways that New Zealanders can volunteer overseas. Out of that meeting, VSA is born.

noVeMber 1962

VSA appoints its first staff member – Bert Hall, former editor of The Dominion and director of the NZBC’s Sound Broadcasting.

deceMber 1962

VSA starts advertising for volunteers.

FebruAry 1963

Sir Edmund Hillary is appointed VSA president and VSA moves into an office in Mulgrave Street.

July 1963

The first volunteers, Ivan and Molly Short, take up an assignment with the New Zealand mobile medical unit in Thailand.

1964

The VSA school leavers programme begins. Four school leavers are sent to Sarawak (Malaysia) and two to Samoa.

1965

VSA starts working in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Brunei.

1966

VSA extends its programmes into Nepal, Indonesia and Kiribati.

FeAture

A life-changing experience

A devastating hurricane hit Samoa on the day that Sally Mirams and her fellow school leaver volunteer Judy Paul set off from Apia for the village of Poutasi in January 1966.

“We had to walk the last bit as it was not possible to drive,” recalls Sally (now Sally Keeling). “The hurricane made our introduction to the village very chaotic – we arrived to a half-destroyed school.”

In those pre-internet days it was several weeks before letters about the action-packed start to Sally’s one-year VSA assignment at Falealili Junior High School reached her hometown of Dunedin, where it eventually made it into the local newspaper.

Sally’s mother also remained blissfully unaware of her 17-year-old daughter’s unexpected encounter with a hurricane until well after the fact. It was possibly just as well, given what happened when the two eventually did speak by telephone several months later.

“It was hopeless – we couldn’t hear each other, and my mother cried.”

Like VSA’s other volunteers at that time, Sally and her mother had to communicate by letter, old-fashioned aerogrammes that could take up to six weeks to make their way between New Zealand and Samoa, and arrived in Poutasi by bus about once a week.

“If a letter didn’t come I would feel a bit flat for about half an hour,” says Sally.

Fast-forward 44 years and blissful ignorance was no longer a possibility when Sally’s daughter, Alice Keeling, set off on her own VSA adventure at the beginning of 2010.

A lot has changed about volunteering since VSA’s early days. But as returned volunteers Sally Keeling and her daughter Alice tell Ruth Nichol, the satisfactions are the same now as they were in the 1960s.


1970

VSA moves to new premises in Pipitea Street. The first volunteer is sent to Papua New Guinea.

1972

A volunteer is sent to Bangladesh.

1973

The school leaver programme ends, reflecting the changing needs of partner countries.

1974

VSA redefines itself as a ‘development’ organisation, rather than simply an ‘aid’ organisation.

1977

The first volunteer is sent to the Cook Islands.

1978

The first volunteer goes to Tuvalu.

1984

Sir Ron Trotter forms the VSA Foundation to help VSA raise 20 per cent of its annual budget.

1985

VSA starts working in Bhutan.

1986

VSA begins its Africa programme, based in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

FeAture

The pair emailed regularly, and Skyped every couple of weeks during the 10 months Alice spent as a special needs programme assistant with Callan Services for Persons with Disabilities in Papua New Guinea.

Alice was slightly older than her mother had been when she began her UniVol assignment, and she had just finished a BA in development studies at Victoria University. She had also spent a year living and volunteering in Germany and Britain after she left school. Even so, Sally admits that she had some anxious moments while her daughter was living in PNG.

“Of course I worried,” she says. “I was upset when Alice had a nasty bout of malaria, but being able to talk to her on Skype was certainly a reassurance.”

courtesy of the families of students from the school.

Sometimes their food basket came complete with a live chicken, much to Sally’s alarm.

Fortunately Judy was made of sterner stuff, and she took on the job of dispatching the chickens.

“I said to her ‘You kill and I’ll cook’,” recalls Sally. “We had a pressure cooker to cook them in – they weren’t very tender.”

For Sally, the year she spent in Samoa was the start of a long relationship with VSA. She was the first returned volunteer to be elected to the VSA Council, and she went on to become a VSA staff member. Since then, her working life has taken several different twists and turns – she is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Otago,

For Alice, modern telecommunications did more than just make it easy for her to stay in touch with her family and friends while she was away. She says they also meant that Papua New Guinea in 2010 was a very different place from Samoa in 1966.

“Because of things like the internet, the people I worked with are much more connected to the rest of the world than the people my mother worked with in Samoa in the 1960s. That means they have different attitudes and a greater understanding of what is happening in other places.”

There were other differences too. While Alice shopped for food at the local market in Kokopo, Sally, who shared a flat with her fellow volunteer Judy Paul (now Judy Johnston) had her food delivered each week


1990

Three VSA volunteers are sent to work in Hong Kong teaching English in a refugee camp for Vietnamese boat people.

1991

Volunteers are sent to Namibia.

1992

VSA starts working in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, supported by a coalition of New Zealand NGOs and

the New Zealand government. VSA moves into an office in Molesworth Street.

1993

VSA starts working in South Africa.

1998

VSA starts working in Bougainville after the decade-long civil conflict comes to an end.

1987

Tanzania is added to the Africa programme. The first volunteer is sent to Tokelau. VSA Programmes Unit is established and three regional programme managers appointed.

FeAture

Christchurch, specialising in ageing.But volunteering in all its forms has

continued to be central to her life.“That notion of service and of learning

through experience really was a formative experience for me.”

Alice’s VSA experience is starting to shape her life too. The year she spent in Papua New Guinea helped confirm that she wants to become a teacher; she has recently finished a teacher training course in Christchurch.

And like her mother, she feels profoundly grateful for having been able to have the extraordinary experience of being a VSA volunteer.

“It really is a chance to see another world,” she says. “After studying the theory of development studies it was such a privilege to be able to see local people taking ownership of what they do, and to see the grass roots approaches that really do work.”

Keeping it in the familyWhen Alice Keeling went on a UniVol assignment in 2010 she joined several other families in which two generations have volunteered with VSA.

Since then, the traffic has started to go the other way. Dunedin couple Roger and Judy Hogg, who finished their two-year assignments in South Africa late last year, became volunteers after their daughter Rachel spent a year in South Africa as a UniVol in 2008.

“She was so enthusiastic about her experience that we started looking online at VSA job possibilities,” says Judy.

Now VSA has chalked up another intergenerational milestone – the first grandchild of a former VSA volunteer has recently become a volunteer.

Nicola Fowlie (right) began her 10-month assignment as a tourism and hospitality assistant in Bougainville in April, 34 years after her grandparents, Stan and Norma Fowlie, headed off to spend two years with VSA in Tonga. Stan was on assignment with the Tupou Young Farmers Association and Norma (left)

worked as a women’s extension adviser.

Shortly before she left New Zealand Nicola visited her grandmother

– now widowed and living in a retirement home in Tauranga – and they reminisced about Norma’s experiences in Tonga.

“Nan is starting to have a few problems with her memory but

she enjoyed telling me some stories about her time in Tonga.”

Nicola also typed up a collection of short stories Norma wrote after she returned from Tonga. They include a story titled Christmas 1978

– Tongatapu, in which, much to Norma’s delight and astonishment, one of her adult sons turns up unexpectedly on a flight to Tonga from New Zealand.

“The son who turned up that Christmas was my father, Warrick,” says Nicola.


Schooled for success Most of us have had memorable teachers, but few of us could say that they had truly changed our lives.

Peter Arwin, manager of the Arawa Health Centre in Bougainville, is one of the few who can. He says that his Year 9 maths and science teacher, VSA volunteer Leigh Joyce, had a profound effect on the future course of his life.

“If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be in the position I am today,” he says. “She laid the foundation – without her I wouldn’t have made it this far.”

It was 2001 and Peter, then aged 22, wasn’t your usual first-year secondary school student. Neither were his classmates at Mabiri High

Leigh Joyce examining turtle eggs with local children in Bougainville in 2001.

Peter Arwin outside the Arawa Health Centre.

School in Bougainville. They ranged in age from about 16 to 30, and they were all former combatants who had fought in the 10-year civil war in Bougainville.

The conflict, which finished in 1998, had disrupted their education, but they were all keen to learn – a quality that Leigh quickly recognised.

“They were all incredibly bright and motivated and amazingly dedicated,” she recalls. “I operated an open door policy, and many of them came at night for extra tuition – some turned up even though they had malaria.”

When she first arrived in Bougainville with her partner, Richard Walle, who was a VSA volunteer based at Arawa Carpentry, Leigh intended to spend the year working on her PhD, a study of kakapo.

Instead, she found herself teaching maths and science at Mabiri High School, a former boys agricultural college. Although not a trained teacher, she had taught briefly in

2002

The first VSA volunteers arrive in Timor-Leste.

2003

VSA moves into an office in Johnston Street.

2007

The UniVol programme begins with eight students from Otago University. VSA moves into an office in Waring Taylor Street.

2008

The first volunteer is sent to Zambia.

2010

Victoria University joins the UniVol programme.

2011

The VSA Council decides to focus VSA’s work in the wider Pacific, and phase out the country programmes in Africa and Asia.

“I operated an open door policy, and many of them came at night for extra tuition – some turned up even

though they had malaria.”

2012

VSA expands its short-term volunteering programme.

Samoa and Thailand, and had also done some university lecturing. Despite her academic background she found the Papua New Guinea examinations for maths and science surprisingly demanding.

“I remember reading through some of the national exam papers they had to sit and I found some of the questions really difficult to interpret in terms of what was required.”

Fortunately, Peter – along with many of his classmates – passed the exams. He went on to continue his secondary education at Bishop Wade High School, before studying applied science at Divine Word University in Papua New Guinea. He became manager of the Arawa Health Centre last year.

As for Leigh, her life has remained largely island-based since she and Richard returned to New Zealand. They spent five years working for the Department of Conservation on Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds, and are now based on Little Barrier Island. And while Leigh has never returned to the classroom, she is still teaching.

“I home-school my two children using the Montessori and New Zealand curriculum. They’re great students.”

Leigh Joyce radio tracking kakapo on Hauturu/Little Barrier Island in May this year.


Top: A satisfied microfinance customer. BoTTom: Bill Hardie with his colleagues.

A boy carries produce down a Dili street. Top: A typical Dili smile. BoTTom: Red onions for sale at a market.

City of smilesFor bill hardie the smiles he saw on early morning walks through Dili with his wife Julie reminded him how resilient the people of Timor-Leste are.

reminder of the deep poverty that still exists in this country.

Work is being done to improve things; one morning, on one of our regular routes, we noticed a couple of new stainless steel water tanks with taps below, courtesy of Japan. But the scale of the task is enormous. Dili’s public infrastructure (such that it was) was trashed during the Indonesian withdrawal after the independence referendum in 1999. The population is growing rapidly but the city lacks the skills and systems to build and maintain the basic utilities that we take for granted in New Zealand (well maybe we don’t take them for granted anymore in our home town of Christchurch…)

Julie and I went for a walk most mornings at 6am as daylight arrives. Temperatures in Dili at this time of day are a relatively cool 25 degrees. The neighbourhood is already active, and most people greeted us with a smile and a “bondia” (good morning).

The morning activities are a reminder of the challenges many Timorese face on a daily basis. Take water for example. We were privileged to have a reasonably reliable water supply to our house (though it was not of drinkable quality). Many people in Dili do not, so they line up to fill plastic containers at various places along the road – often a dripping pipe in a storm drain – to carry back to their house. Morning ablutions are a challenge for many too, and we often saw people walking along the road with a towel and a toothbrush, presumably to visit a friend or family member who has a shower or at least a water supply.

Dili, which has a population of more than 200,000, has no sewerage system. Houses are supposed to have septic tanks, but few do, and those that exist are not maintained and probably don’t work. That means that in some areas there is evidence (visual and olfactory) of raw sewerage in the puddles and streams. Swimming in the sea off Dili is

popular, but the risk of crocodiles and the knowledge as to where the sewerage ends up was enough to dissuade us.

On our walks we saw young boys with large woven baskets full of fresh bread rolls (baked in wood-fired brick ovens), calling

“paun paun paun” as they sold their wares. At 10c per roll, these are a cheap and tasty breakfast. Unfortunately the local children who are lucky enough to have any money seem to prefer the deep-fried pastries and doughnuts that are also on offer but a lot less healthy.

Other boys push carts full of firewood – they have walked for miles from out in the countryside to sell their small bundles. Still more sell fresh fruit or vegetables and various other wares, eking out a meagre living to assist their families.

There is a rubbish collection system which works quite well – teams of city employees regularly pick up rubbish from concrete bins along the main streets. Generally the neighbourhood pigs and dogs give the garbage a good working over first

– an effective recycling system. Young boys and old men can also often be seen working through the piles searching for aluminium cans and other items of value – another

There are huge opportunities for volunteers to make a difference in

Timor-Leste. It was a privilege to be part of what is happening.

This might all sound a bit depressing. But it’s not. The smiles on faces are genuine. The resilience and entrepreneurial spirit of the people is impressive. I worked as a finance team mentor at Moris Rasik, an NGO that provides microfinance services to the poor. Microfinance (loans, deposits and insurance) allows clients to start and grow small businesses and thus begin to climb out of poverty. It works. There are huge opportunities for volunteers to make a difference in Timor-Leste in many different fields. It was a privilege to be part of what is happening.


Top: James Toroansi displays his book-keeping. BoTTom: Checking out the rice harvest.

Top: Proud farmers show off their rice seedlings. BoTTom: Linda (left) & Janna arrive in Panguna.

Lawrence Legenda and his daughter show off their backyard garden.

legumes – to improve the quality of their soil, and make their gardens more productive.

“They were incredibly enthusiastic about the changes they had made since the training,” says Janna, who returned to New Zealand at the end of last year.

Even more remarkable was the entrepre-neurial spirit that the training had unleashed in some of the farmers. One man, James Toroansi, for example, had not only rehabilitated his cocoa block, he had also introduced ducks, pigs, inland fish farming and a canteen. He had made enough money to build a permanent house for his family and increase their standard of living.

Others had embarked on projects such as making jam and growing spices and rice. They had also set up an integrated farmers’ group to share their experiences and help others benefit from their knowledge.

“It was an awe-inspiring experience,” says Janna. “I got the feeling that everyone was so hungry for knowledge that they really took what the training gave them and did amazing things.”

Hungry for knowledgeJanna Candy was impressed by how a group of rural farmers in Bougainville made the most of the training provided by her partner organisation.

When her shoes got too uncomfortable, Janna Candy took them off and walked barefoot – just like the people who live in the isolated, mountainous area of Panguna in Bougainville.

“I discovered there’s a good reason why they do it, which is that it’s much easier to grip the ground with bare feet,” says Janna, who walked for a total of 13 hours during an intrepid two-day journey through the Panguna district with her colleague Linda Ningo. “On the first day we walked over four mountains – I have never felt so exhausted in my life.”

But despite the exhaustion – and the sore feet – it was worth it. The trip was an amazing experience: “Some of the people we met told us that we were the first outsiders that had come into their villages in 20 years.”

More importantly, it was also a chance for Janna and Linda to see for themselves the remarkable impact that just a small amount of training can have on people thirsty for knowledge.

Janna and Linda spent two years working together in the monitoring and evaluation team at the Kairak Vudal Resource Centre in East New Britain. The centre manages the Integrated Agricultural Training Programme

(IATP), delivering training courses to help rural farmers increase their productivity. Janna’s role as a VSA volunteer was to help Linda and her colleague Pearla Buak improve the way they collect and analyse data about the training courses, and how they present and report the data.

In late 2009, the IATP ran a series of training courses for farmers from the Panguna district – site of the infamous Panguna mine and still a “no go zone” more than 10 years after the end of the Bougainville crisis. The training was a first for many of the farmers, whose education had been interrupted by the crisis.

And as Janna and Linda discovered when they arrived in Panguna to evaluate the results of the training, the farmers were enthusiastic students. Armed with their new knowledge, they had set up backyard gardens, rather than growing their main crops in gardens a long distance from their homes.

“This means they have to make fewer long and back-breaking walks carrying heavy loads, and they don’t have to make so many overnight stays in their gardens.”

Many had also started mulching, and using crop rotation – including planting


Chum riep leah CambodiaVSA’s last volunteer to Cambodia finished his assignment in March, marking the end of our 20-year programme there.

When Bev Wickham first arrived in Cambodia in 1992 a group of Khmer Rouge guerrillas were living in the hills behind Kus Commune where she worked as a nurse.

They made regular night-time raids on the villages below, including one that killed the 18-year-old sister of Bev’s counterpart Khom. It was a grim reminder of how dangerous Cambodia still was, even though it was officially at peace after 20 years of civil war.

But spending two years as a primary health care adviser based in Takeo province gave Bev an insight into how people can retain their humanity despite being deeply traumatised.

“The Khmer people I worked with were so gentle and generous and friendly, even though they had nothing – it was just incredible,” she says.

Bev was one of the first three volunteers to work in Cambodia when VSA began its programme there in 1992. They were part of a huge wave of foreigners who flooded into the country in the early 90s after the Paris Conference gave the UN the authority to initiate a ceasefire.

Since then, more than 80 VSA volunteers have worked in Cambodia, helping to rebuild the war-torn country.

By the time VSA arrived, Cambodia had few highly educated people left – most had either been killed or had fled. Health and education services were almost nonexistent and many people were starving because rice crops were destroyed or simply left to rot in the fields.

VSA volunteers played a small but important role in helping

“The people are fun and engaging, and they

respect you – especially if you’re a volunteer

and a low income earner like them”

Cambodia get back on its feet. They were based in the capital, Phnom Penh, or nearby Takeo and Svay Rieng provinces, and worked in a wide range of areas, from health and education to tourism and urban planning.

More recently, a succession of volunteers have worked at the National Library in Phnom Penh, including our last volunteer in Cambodia, Tony Morine, who finished his assignment in March.

The National Library was another casualty of the Khmer Rouge. They threw out and burned most of its books and bibliographic records and at one point used the building as a piggery. VSA volunteers worked alongside local librarians, helping them preserve what remained – including a unique collection of palm leaf manuscripts – and rebuild and catalogue a new collection.

For VSA Council chair Farib Sos, the library project has a special significance. He spent many hours studying at the library before arriving at Victoria University as a Colombo Plan student in 1972.

“It now looks like the library I remember – the chief librarian is really grateful for the work VSA has done.”

Many former VSA volunteers have maintained strong links with Cambodia. Some found paid work and stayed on after their VSA assignments had finished, including several who are still living there. A few even found love there, and married their Cambodian colleagues.

“We were just captivated by it,” says Jan Nye who ended up spending five years in Cambodia with her husband Rob Joiner, three of them as VSA volunteers. “The people are fun and engaging, and they respect you – especially if you’re a volunteer and a low income earner like them.”

According to VSA chief executive officer Debbie Snelson, working in Cambodia provided invaluable lessons about the reality of working in a post-conflict society.

“We have since gone on to work in similar countries. Working in Cambodia increased our understanding as an organisation about how long recovery takes and how things play out with rebuilding civil society.”

She says the success of the programme, especially over the last 11 years, can be partly attributed to Cee Chan, a Cambodian Kiwi who worked as VSA’s field officer in Phnom Penh from 2001.

“Cee helped volunteers deepen their understanding about Cambodia and its culture, which in turn helped make their assignments all the more successful. He was a wonderful ambassador for VSA with a deep commitment to supporting Cambodia’s development.”


CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Biology students from Phnom Penh University collecting water samples; A woman standing in a rice field; Books on the shelves of the Cambodia National Library; A monk greets the early morning; Cee Chan in his office; Bev wickham checks out a child in Kus Commune; A cyclo driver on the streets of Phnom Penh.


Anna Blackwell and Marian Bland (right) at Ranfurly Manor.

John Putt is organising a reunion concert of the bands that played at the legendary “Putt’s Pub” during the 80s and 90s.

Annabel Normal (right) chats to David Wakelin at a tea party in Nelson in February. Annabel is now working as an adviser with the Festival of Pacifc Arts being held in Honiara in July.

Crafters at the Stampin’ Up day organised by Tee-Jay Horrall in Wanganui.

Nicola Fowlie made and sold cupcakes in central Wellington on Valentine’s Day.

encouraged to raise $2,000, while those going on assignments of less than 12 months are encouraged to raise $1,000.

Friends and families are pitching in with the fundraising. Tee-Jay Horrell, whose son Aaron is on 10-month assignment as a UniVol in Papua New Guinea, raised $850 for VSA at a crafting day in Wanganui in January, and she is running a second crafting day on 16 June.

“I just love what Aaron is doing and it’s also a good excuse for a girls’ get-together,” says Tee-Jay, who is an independent demonstrator for crafting company Stampin’ Up. “I intend to run a fundraising day for VSA each term this year.”

For John Putt, fundraising for VSA has provided the perfect opportunity to relive

Volunteers step up to the fundraising challengeRecently selected volunteers are proving to be an inventive lot when it comes to fundraising for VSA before they leave to go on assignment.

the heady days of the pub he ran with his siblings at Haruru Falls in the Bay of Islands.

He’s delighted with the response he’s had so far, with most of the bands that played at ‘Putt’s Pub’ during its heyday signing up to play at the reunion concert on 10 June.

“We’re all still good mates, and I thought we could get one or two to do a concert. From there it was just a few short steps to having nearly all the musicians and permission to use the pub as a venue,” says John.

John leaves a week after the concert for the island of Ambae in Vanuatu, where he will work as a vocational training adviser at the Torgil Rural Training Centre.

Marian Bland’s employers at Ranfurly Manor, a resthome in Feilding, didn’t think twice when it came to supporting her fundraising efforts for VSA. Ranfurly Manor contributed a generous $1,000, and many of Marian’s colleagues, such as facility manager Anna Blackwell, have also made personal donations to her online fundraising account.

“We have 100 per cent faith that Marian will do a fantastic job in Timor-Leste,” says Anna. “I know they will recognise her skills once she gets over there.”

Marian left in May to start a six-month assignment as a business administration adviser with the East Timor Development Agency in Dili.

Among the fundraising activities they have been involved in are a tea party in Nelson, a crafting day in Wanganui, and selling homemade cupcakes in central Wellington on Valentine’s Day. In the pipeline are a second crafting day, and a reunion concert of bands that once played at the legendary Twin Pines Tavern in the Bay of Islands during the 1980s.

So far out-going volunteers have raised almost $40,000 since September last year

– and as an added bonus, their activities are also helping to raise the profile of VSA.

“I’m very impressed with what everyone is doing to reach their fundraising targets. By getting so much support it’s really helping to make more people aware of the great work we do,” says Karla Paotonu, VSA’s fundraising manager.

Volunteer fundraising was introduced last year to help raise the independent funding VSA needs to keep its programme at the current level. Volunteers going on assignments of more than 12 months are

So far out-going volunteers have raised almost $40,000 since

September last year


Building a better life for Pacific families

The response to our March appeal has been fantastic – we’ve raised more than $21,000 so far and donations are still coming in.

This year’s March appeal focused on VSA’s work helping people in the Pacific to become financially independent and build a better life for their families. It featured the work of volunteer Jacky Fuller who is working with the Small Business Enterprise Centre in Apia.

At present, two thirds of people in Samoa live a subsistence lifestyle. Organisations like SBEC are helping them use local business opportunities to make a better life for themselves and their families.

VSA hillary Club launched

To kick off our 50th anniversary celebrations we launched the VSA Hillary Club in February. It’s a major donor club that honours the memory of our founding president, Sir Edmund Hillary.

In return for their support VSA Hillary Club members have the opportunity to visit an in-country programme, meet recently returned volunteers and attend an annual lunch with other Hillary Club members.

To find out more about the VSA Hillary Club, or to become a member, contact Karla Paotonu 04 495 8526, [email protected]

Flight of the Christmas Kiwi

Our Christmas fundraising appeal raised just over $6500 – the equivalent of 361 volunteer days. Those who donated to the Send a Kiwi this Christmas appeal received a plantable Christmas Kiwi Christmas decoration to send to their families and friends.

During the appeal we made our first foray into selling online; we’ll set up the VSA online shop again this Christmas.

From: Karla Paotonu, VSA Fundraising Manager

to: All VSA supporters

subject: Fundraising update

Hi Everyone

As I write this we are making the final arrangements for our 50th anniversary photo exhibition, Windows to

Another World, which opens in Wellington on 6 June. It will also travel to Auckland, Nelson and Dunedin.

I do hope you get a chance to see the exhibition – it provides a wonderful insight into VSA’s work over the

past 50 years.

While you’re there, don’t forget to buy one of our 50th anniversary raffle tickets – or a book of them! Orbit

Travel, the company that organises all our volunteer travel, has generously donated the first prize – airfares

and accommodation for two people to Vanuatu. If you buy 20 or more tickets you will go into a draw to win a

night for two at luxurious Wharekauhau Lodge in the Wairarapa valued at $900 – also donated by Orbit Travel.

Getting to 50 is an important milestone, and it’s a good chance to think about what lies ahead. I’d

like to take this opportunity to urge you to think about becoming a member of our regular giving

programme, VSAfuture; it’s a great way of helping to make sure that VSA stays around for another

50 years. You can find out more about VSAfuture by visiting our website, www.vsa.org.nz

In the meantime, if you’d like to support our work, you can use the donation form attached to this

page. Just fill it out and post it to us – you can use the Freepost option but a stamp saves us the

cost of postage!

Thanks for your support.

Karla

karla Paotonu

VSA Fundraising Manager

www.vsa.org.nzKarla Paotonu promotes VSA to

festival goers at WOMAD in March.


GROWING Support

6–15 June weLLINGtoNAsteron Centre cnr Featherston & Bunny St

18–24 June AUCKLANd Australis Room, Britomart 36 Customs Street East

4–13 JulyNeLSoNNelson Provincial Museum cnr Trafalgar & Hardy St

17–27 July dUNedINCommunity Gallery 20 Princes Street

PHOTO: Layne Stevenson

vista_may 2012

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