cruise-aiders.com Vanuatu

55 twenty-five kilogram boxes of educational material collected and distributed

25 sailing yachts involved in transporting the boxes to the outer islands of Vanuatu

55 Primary and Secondary schools aided throughout the

82 islands of Vanuatu

20 Sponsors who donated ESL books, stationary, educational material and printing

25 Volunteers who made this project happen

2400 text books and reading books already donated and counting

Project VEO was inspired by my experience in Vanuatu a few years back. While there, I took some stationary supplies to a school at Port Resolution on the island of Tanna, and saw how little the teachers have to work with there. It was like offering a drip of water to a desert. Not only are they lacking in stationary supplies but they have very few resources to teach from and have not always received sufficient training. There are 82 remote islands in Vanuatu, each with their own culture and language. The common language is Bislama, yet they need English to communicate with the rest of the world and progress as a country. For this reason, Project VEO is focused on collecting and sending donated ESL educational material to the secondary schools, along with children's reading journals, story books, dictionaries and school atlases to the secondary and primary schools. Thanks to many English schools throughout Auckland I have received donations of over 1700 secondhand ESL text books, with more still arriving. Donations of around 500 school journals/atlases/childrens storybooks have been received from publishers and stationary suppliers in Auckland. These books plus additional stationary have been packed into 55 boxes and delivered to the Bay of Islands into the willing hands of sailors heading to Vanuatu who will personally ensure the material gets to the designated school assigned.

I recently spent the month of July sailing with the crew of QOVOP to some remote villages on the islands of Malekula, Ambrym and Efate to personally deliver books and wall maps to the schools that had been flown up to the main city Port Vila by the RNZAF and we were very well received. The teachers were so very grateful for our efforts and the children were so excited to receive new books. Other yachts have also delivered the books and are sending comments and photos which I will continue to post on the gallery below. I am in touch with the Minister of Education in Vanuatu along with various NGO voluntary organizations and have received a list of all the schools on the various islands of Vanuatu. Spread sheets have been created to ensure the right level and combination of materials got packed into the right box and delivered to the right yacht sailing to the right island.

The logos of all our sponsors can be seen in the photo gallery below, which documents the progress of Project VEO. The sailors involved in the project will continue to supply me with photos and feedback once they have delivered the material to the school, so please return regularly to this page to view updates and images of the projects' arrival in Vanuatu.

Any donations are still welcomed until the end of August 2010, so please get in touch with me. Ideal donations are: Encyclopedias Dictionaries Atlases Lower level ESL text and workbooks Children's reading books, school journals, stationary

Thanks to all who have been involved, as without you, this wonderful project would never have eventuated.

Warm regards, Rowena Baines