Live & Learn Resource Centre Officially Opened

Live & Learn Environmental Education (LLEE) Officially opened their new Environmental Resource Centre. The establishment of the Resource Centre has been a twelve month project which commenced last year with the distribution of thousands of books, resources, and sporting equipment to many of the schools across Vanuatu. Since then Live & Learn has been busy setting up an environmental library and Resource Centre and constructing an outdoor learning space that is conducive to learning and the sharing of information. 

Students using the Resource Centre

 The construction of the Resource Centre was made possible due to the support of Australian Donors, and AusAID which provided the funds for the building materials. With the help from the staff at Live & Learn and the WASH enterprise group in Mele, the Building was completed and was officially opened by the Australian High Commissioner, H.E. Mr Jeff Roach, in a small ceremony held on the 26 July which was attended by stakeholders, Chiefs, teachers, and members of the community.   Mr. Jeff Roach, congratulated Live & Learns efforts on building such a useful and worthwhile community resource and supported LLEE in its quest to facilitate the learning of locally relevant environmental issues in order to build skills and knowledge.

Australian High Commissioner H.E. Mr Jeff Roach and Australian Volunteer Tracey Robinson cutting the ribbon to officially open the Resource Centre

 The Resource Centre compromises an Environmental Library and Learning Space that can be utilized by all members of the community. It contains resources that can be utilized by teachers to develop interesting and engaging lessons for their students, environmental picture books for children to look at and read, cooking and gardening books and literature about science and the environment. It is now open for students, teachers, members of the community, community groups and stakeholders to utilize free of charge, where the focus is on access to information and the opportunity to ask questions, read and learn. The Resource Centre is located at Live & Learn in Fres Wota Four (opposite the Fres Wota School).  

Students utilising the outdoor classroom

Stringband event with important Climate Change message

Last Friday a fun and energetic stringband and poster competition event was held at Sea Front Stage in Port Vila town. The event, which was organised by Live and Learn and funded by GTZ/SPC and NACCC, aimed to raise awareness of Climate Change issues in the Pacific and Vanuatu. Participation in the competitions was open to all Ni-Vanuatu stringbands and school children in Efate. A condition for entry into the competition was that the stringbands must perform one original song on the topic ‘Adaption to Climate Change in Vanuatu.’

Live and Learn held a stall near the stage with a poster display and information about what causes climate change, how it will affect Vanuatu communities and what action can be taken to adapt to the challenges it may bring. Ian Kalsuak from Live and Learn addressed the crowd, explaining that “climate change is predicted to cause important changes such as increased coastal erosion of beaches, decreased rainfall and coral bleaching”. Kami Robert, also from Live and Learn, told onlookers that “Climate change will affect us all in some way. Communities need to start talking about and planning how they will learn to live with these changes. Relocation of village buildings back away from eroded coastline and the planting of stronger varieties of crops to withstand temperature changes are examples of adaption options some communities may wish to consider.”

The winner of the 30,000 vatu prize for first place in the stringband competition was Vuod from East Efate, Epau Village, with a catchy tune that described the impacts that climate change would have Vanuatu, including rising sea levels and increased temperatures. A GTZ/SPC climate change DVD prize was also awarded to the person who correctly answered questions about issues raised in the song.

Live & Learn Reef Check Workshop

On Friday the staff at Live & Learn Environmental Education, participated in a Reef Check training program.  The entire staff of Live & Learn including the staff from Tanna and Santo learnt about the issues affecting the reefs of the Pacific and also ways in which to monitor, evaluate and protect the fragile environment that is such an important part of Vanuatu.  Live & Learn participated in the training day in order to understand how the program is delivered and what issues and activities it focus’s on so that Live & Learn can further support the Reef check program in its delivery to Malapoa College and other interested communities and schools.   The Reef Check program plays an important role in delivering a practical teaching program that includes a theoretical and practical component in fish, invertebrate and substrate identification.  Monitoring is an essential component of the program as the type and variety of aquatic species and substrate can tell us a lot about the health of the reef as particular fish and corals are indicators of healthy ‘ aquatics environments. 

Donations to the Childrens Ward



A happy father reading to  his son during his stay at the hospital after Live&Learn present his child with a bag of books and activities.

Live&Learn did not forget about the children in the hospital when it came to distributing books and learning material. At the time of the visit there were 26 children in the ward who were suffering from a variety of ailments ranging from broken bones, respiratory infections, issues relating to water and sanitation and various other more serious problems. When children come to the ward the mother or father stay with them while they recover.  It can be an emotional, tiring and stressful time for the parents and the days can be very long. The recipients of the 'library show bags' which consisted of activities, craft supplies and books appreciated  the donated materials. The parents were also given books and magazine to read for themselves or to their children to help fill in their days at the hospital.

Helping Nguna Island

 


Classroom set  in the back of the teachers house accommodates 40 children



An example of the hand made teaching resources when poster paper is available

The Chief from the small Island of Nguna, contacted Live&Learn when he heard about the educational resources we had available and asked if we were able to provide the children in his community with anything that would improve their learning.  In the kinder class, there are 40 students with only one teacher and they don’t have many resources to help them really develop and learn. The students from the community are currently undertaking kinder studies in the back of their teachers’ house whilst the community are waiting to save up enough money to complete their own kinder. As part of the donated learning package, the kinder was given pencils, crayons, pens, paper, glue, cardboard, library bags for the safe keeping of books and also a large selection of brightly colored, educational books.  



Live&Learn in Vanuatu

Seaside Community

There are currently hundreds of children living in the Seaside Community in Port Vila.  This is a community who struggle with day to day requirements and often have to fund raise to make enough money to pay for their children's school fees. A typical terms school fee is $60 per term.  At $1.30 an hour being the typical local wage it would take over 46 hours to earn enough money to send one child to school for a term. Many of these children have an average of 5 siblings. As a result due to the high rate of unemployment many children miss out from attending school. Live & Learn Environmental Education assisted with the needs of this community with the distribution of school resources, school bags, pencils, paper and provided a small library so that all children in this community have access to learning materials and literature.

Pango Kindergarten

This is a group of kinder students who attend a school which is completely reliant on donations.  The teacher is a local widow who believes in the value of education as she was fortunate enough to have attended University through an Australian sponsorship program.  She has transformed her house into a kindergarten and volunteers her time to teach the children basic English and Maths. All children in the Pango village aged between four and seven are welcome to attend.  Live and Learn delivered sporting equipment, picture books, and writing resources to this kindergarten.