REALLY Good Friends

Well, I have been neglecting my blog lately. I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with their head cut-off recently. Sometimes Port Vila can be less an escape and more of a prison. I think this stems from trying to get so much done in far too short a time. The most popular activity in Vila is running around and finding everyone that you need to talk to gone. This seems to be a theme in Vila. Just the past few days I have found myself bouncing around Vila Town looking for funds that were awarded to me, every time I went somewhere I found that the person with the key to the safe, where the money always happens to be, is out and decided to take the key with him. Actually, this seems to be a theme throughout Vanuatu; when I went to the other side of Maewo to check the post office last, I found that Paul Wren (postman-extraordinaire) had gone to Vila, locked up the mail in his house, and had stolen away to Vila with the key. As you can imagine, this can grow quite frustrating when you either walk three hours to the other side of the island or just simply jump from bus to bus in Vila to find that the person with the key is never there; this totally changes my perspective on “key” members of the community—ok that was cheesy, but I can’t resist sometimes. Anyway, now that I have a small time to wait and chill out at Lolowai Hospital, East Ambae, before I take the boat back to Maewo, I decided I would try to type out my life the past three months in a small blog entry.

Just call me Mister Chairman

At site I have been working to get the community to start taking action and adopt changes in regards to sanitation and hygiene behaviors. Through multiple workshops and  health seminars (or “toktoks”), the community has gained some momentum in the right direction. Recently, I delivered two letters for the Naviso Tarsur Village Development Council and Water/Sanitation Committee requesting funds/help in rebuilding the water supply and materials for building VIP toilets (pit toilets with pipes to trap and kill vectors for disease). The water supply letter was delivered to Rural Water Supply at the Department of Water (a part of the Vanuatu Government) and the request for funding for materials for VIP toilets was delivered to the Australian Direct Aid Programme at the Australian High Commission. I feel that the chances of acquiring funds for the VIP toilet materials is good, but first I must collect price quotes and letters of reference from area leaders and provincial planners. Regarding Rural Water Supply, I feel that the chances are better because of the location of Naviso (isolation combined with need), but I have also heard that many of Rural Water Supply’s construction equipment is currently located in Malampa Province which could greatly hinder Naviso’s chances of gaining help. As well, Rural Water Supply is completely donor-funded and can only construct/fix/assemble five water systems every fiscal year in Vanuatu (I am still not sure if this is five per province or nationally, but I am becoming more and more convinced that this is a national figure—not provincial). Fortunately, I have paid in advance new joints for the Gravity-Fed System (pipes feed water from a spring source within the rock that travels through the pipes at a very high pressure; this pressure often leads to broken pipes and problems in the water system) in Naviso. The pipes are available, but the joints were not. Theoretically, the Water/Sanitation Committee and the Naviso Tarsur Village Development Council will raise the funds and pay me for the joints at price (approximately 53,000 Vatu or 500 USD). With these joints, the community should be able to fix the current system, which would help greatly in keeping the water clean and providing a constant source. This does not mean that Naviso is not still in need of a new water system, the opposite is in fact true: there is a great need for an improved water supply. The joints provide a temporary fix that could last a fair amount of time, but it is more of a patch job opposed to providing a new working tap system that reaches the whole community (and is clean of course). As mentioned above, the high pressure often takes its toll on the old pipe system. I am hoping that with the presence of the pipes, within reach, and the possibility of receiving funding for VIP toilets that the Naviso Community and its leadership will take action and help to raise funds.

The effort to start transforming the sanitation, water, and hygiene situation in Naviso began with a workshop called PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action) which used community mapping, daily/seasonal schedule analysis, and a needs assessment to ignite action and ended with the PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation) workshop which used various activities to help the participants educate each other on the importance of sanitation and hygiene improvement in the community. In the end, the community decided to request aid from the Australian High Commission, specifically the Australian Direct Aid Programme, and try and build VIP toilets in Naviso. As of now, the community has done a census counting the households that did not have a toilet and making the need to dig your own toilet a compulsory activity (compulsory by withholding access to the health dispensary; I was not quite sure about this decision, but it was not my part to criticize). If every household has a toilet by the time I go back tomorrow then that in itself is a massive improvement; if we can get funding and build VIP toilets for every household that will be amazing. That was a quick breakdown of my efforts regarding hygiene and sanitation and I will be spending a lot of time the next months preparing the applications for funding for materials, but the reason I came into Vila was HIV/AIDS and that will also be a focus of mine the next few months as I have just received my 63,500 Vatu to hold my workshop in Naviso in July.

Condom Man to the Rescue

After I left Maewo on May 22^nd for the Training of Trainers at St. Patrick’s College, Vureas, East Ambae, I stayed for half the workshop where we helped train young people from different Peace Corps Villages to run Camp GLOWs (Girls Leading our World) and BILDs (Boys in Leadership Development). These camps address leadership and empowerment of youth. Additionally, the camps touch on issues such as Adolescent Reproductive Health and STIs and HIV/AIDS. I left halfway through this to travel to Vila to help facilitate a PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) funded workshop. The PEPFAR Workshop—HIV/AIDS Aweanes: Blong Save Wanem Nao HIV mo AIDS—trained 19 Village Health Workers from Shefa, Penama, and Malampa Provinces to run the workshops, build awareness, and educate the people of their respective areas about HIV/AIDS and how to prevent transmission. The Village Health Workers can share the correct information about the sickness and promote methods for preventing transmission. Ideally, this will mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS in the country. Vanuatu has only five confirmed cases (two of which are dead), but the testing system is underdeveloped and accessibility is limited. With a disease like HIV, the virus can spread like wildfire and the exact numbers of infected persons is hard to calculate. After the epidemic that hit Papaua New Guinea, it is incredibly important to raise awareness of the infection and promote preventative measures in Vanuatu.

Well, that is all for now. I have run out of time and must take the boat back to Maewo now. I will be back in internet connection in August and will hopefully have more blogs prepared. Ale!

NOTE: As of now my parents have decided to try and reach Naviso in October. My Mother, in a wonderful display of ingenuity, has decided that she might charter a helicopter to fly straight into Naviso to avoid the boat ride.