High-achieving students working in an oudoor classroom
YouMe Support Foundation has partnered with winaresort.com, to provide a world first in a fund raising raffle. Sometime in the next few months they will give away a South Pacific island resort in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
“Unless we get outside help, our high achieving students will never have a chance to go to high school,” Mr Harris Apos, the Area Secretary for Banks Islands said. “They will never have the opportunity to live their dreams of being a school teacher, doctor, mechanic, or nurse, because we get very little assistance from the government.”
One exercise book is shared between three pupils. Pencils are broken into three to give these children something to write with. You can find more details at http://youmesupport.org
Since 2004 guests to Seachange Lodge, (http://seachangelodge.com) have helped the proprietors , Rick and Wendy Tendys, to send desperately needed school supplies to these geographically and financially underprivileged villages.
Recently when cyclone Funa, devastated the island communities, the chiefs appealed to the government for help. They were told:, "We will look into, but there are no funds in the budget for natural disasters". This is in spite of the fact that the government assisted some communities in a later cyclone, in the southern part of the country.
Vanuatu is a tiny archipelago nation that was made famous by A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, which birthed the film South Pacific.
In 2006, Vanuatu was named the Happiest Country on Earth, according to the British New Economics Foundation’s (NEF), ‘Happy Planet Index’. This index was based on the longevity of the people and their environmental footprint on the planet.
Vanuatu rated top, closely followed by Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica and Panama, according to Adrienne Wilson, writing for Gadling.com on July 15th 2006.
While the villagers always greet you with the most fantastic wide smiles and bright hello, if they do not receive outside assistance, these communities will be left to battle on their own.
