Vanuatu visitors and a harvest of goodwill

vanuatu

DAVID SOUTHWELL

For six months of the year Bairnsdale Uniting Church becomes the second spiritual home for a group of men from Vanuatu.

The current group will be returning to Vanuatu early this month and for some it has been their third time working on a 500-acre organic vegetable farm in East Gippsland. From November to May, the men learn skills that can be utilised in their home villages.

Ambrose is one of the repeat visitors who said he felt very appreciative of being welcomed into the Bairnsdale congregation.

“We are very happy here, we feel at home here,” Ambrose said.

Bairnsdale UC member David Husted said that shortly after the first group arrived in 2015 he invited them to the church.

“They arrived on the Friday and came to church on the Sunday and we found out that they didn’t have food, so people rallied around and we put some money in so food could be purchased ,” he said.

“We also opened the op shop and said ‘go for your life’. The op shop has been very supportive in providing all the men with clothing.”

Ambrose said he was grateful for the congregation’s generosity.

“The congregation has looked after us, they are good to us so we want to do something to give back,” he said.

Joining the choir has been one way the visiting men have participated in the life of the church.

“Their singing has delighted the congregation,” Mr Husted said.

“After some church services many of us meet to enjoy a coffee and a chat at a local bakery. On one occasion our Vanuatuan guests entertained other church members and customers with an inpromptu song session.” 

Last November seven men from Vanuatu arrived, with one since returning home for family reasons.

“It was good to welcome friends back and follow up on what the men needed to make them comfortable,” Mr Husted said.

“It was cold so we got extra blankets  and they’ll be there each time that people return for another visit from Vanuatu.”

Whenever a group returns to Vanuatu the op shop  provides some farewell gifts.

“Each of the guys goes back with a case full of stuff, such as clothes and toys, and a sewing machine to help the family support themselves,” Mr Husted said.

The initiative to bring the Vanuatuan men to Australia came from Uniting Church member Don MacRaild, who has been awarded an Order of Australia for his work with the Vanuatu Prevention of Blindness Project.

After researching the rate of diabetes in Vanuatu, Mr MacRaild determined the islanders’ diet was too heavily biased towards white rice.

So he organised with a labour hire company for men to work in Australia on temporary work visas where they can learn how to grow potatoes and other vegetables, as well as earn money to invest back in their home communities.

Ambrose said that these goals were being achieved.

“We have learnt a lot of things here about farming and the machinery,” he said.

“We come here to learn more skills and then go back to do projects, farming and start some businesses. Some men can also afford to build more permanent houses.”

Mr MacRaild also said he was pleased with the results.

“In its best form this is one of the best ways to get aid money into villages,” he said.

“Nearly all of the men working here have had as their priority something for their village other than themselves.”

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