Ambae Workshop Update

This is the English version of what I submitted to the two newspapers here in Vanuatu:

Qatamele Village, North Ambae.

On Mon Sept 8, over 25 people from Qatamele village and surrounding areas on North Ambae came together for the opening of a four-day “Water, Hygiene, & Sanitation” workshop sponsored by the European Union through their Non-State Actors Programme and implemented by Peace Corps.

Each morning, participants learned how diseases spread and discovered how higher levels of hygiene for the individual, family, household and community can prevent illness at the village level.

Through drama, drawings, games and discussions, participants shared their perceptions of their community’s needs as well as the knowledge and resources already available in the village. They explored gender roles, division of labour and identified ways that men and women could work together to improve their family’s health. Each participant then began to develop a Family Action Plan to bring home.

Each afternoon, participants took the time to construct the first VIP (Ventiliated Improved Pit) toilet in the community, employing a technology that greatly reduces the number of flies spreading germs throughout the village.



Each evening, the entire community was invited to watch videos on various health issues and ask questions.

Every household in Qatamele was invited to send a representative to the workshop, with the hope that the tools given and skills developed would reach everyone in the community and each participant would serve as a Hygiene Leader for their family. Invitations were also sent to nearby villages in the Waluriki area to encourage neighbours to consider similar programs.

Children aged 1-12 attended their own program, Yumi Washem Hans!, an awareness campaign originally piloted on Tongoa earlier this year.






Workshop facilitators were Blake Stogner, a local Peace Corps Volunteer in Qatamele, and Amanda Prasow, a Peace Corps Community Health Volunteer on Tongoa.

According to Arthurvan Garae, Chairman of the Qatamele Council, “We are very glad to see something like this happen here. We are a ‘back-way’ community, we live in the bush…there are healthworkers on the other side of the island but never has one of them reached us. We’re taking seriously this chance to ask questions and clarify a lot we didn’t know or understand before. We are going to see how this really raises the standard of knowledge and health for this village…”

The workshop, as well as materials for the VIP toilet and an additional two new water tanks, was made possible through funding from the European Union/Peace Corps/VRDTCA’s Community-Initiated Water & Sanitation Programme. Any community interested in a similar project should contact VRDTCA or a nearby Peace Corps Volunteer.

Um...I intended to finish this blog properly but I happen to be co-housesitting in the flasest mansion ever and my friend just showed up with, I kid you not, a crew of single men. It's time to be a hostess!