21st century puts Ni-Vanuatu kids at risk

TheYouMe Support Foundation established in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, in partnering with winaresort.com is offering you the opportunity to enter the draw for your own private holiday home, plus six holiday units. Guests to Seachange Lodge already make a contribution to educational materials for the ni-Vanuatu kids on these islands. Seachange Lodge provides 10% of its earnings to thecharitable fund . Non-repayable education grants will provide these academically capable kids opportunities they will never have without your help. This takes the pressure off the mothers and will provide to the community in the years ahead, the optimism for living in the 21st century.

Kids are your prized possession. You work hard to provide them with food, with sporting activities, with an education, with the latest technology, the latest signature clothing brands, with music, with social outings. You dont want to see their young lives put at risk. But how would it feel to be left behind by the 21st Century?

In the remote northern islands of Vanuatu, in the South Pacific Ocean, just three hours flying time from plentiful Australia live communities in very much the same way as they have done for centuries. "Custom living" places the focus on the community - their families, their kids. But it is a cashless society. For those requiring payment then woven mats, firewood, shells, pig tusks  the most valuable  are presented.

Women care for their kids providing them with whatever is available - the basis of this care is food fresh from the village gardens and the special relationship of love. Thoughts rarely pass to material possessions. A sound education though is seen as a passport to the future, yet too often it remains a distant dream.

The kids are the focus of the communities. In Vanuatu there is no such thing as free education  the kids are put at risk of missing out on the gains of the 21st century. The government makes a small donation to education but Prime Minister Lini was prepared to admit in late 2007 that these isolated islands are beyond the support of the government.

School for these kids is to grade 6. Pages in exercise books are separated to be shared between many; pencils are broken into threes to have enough to go around; stories are read aloud and picture books are viewed in groups so all can access the information. The classroom is an area in the village compound where long tables provide a surface on which to write, a blackboard has seen better days and is desperately in need of blackening. There may be a trained teacher struggling with these limitations with assistants that have recently completed grade 6.

Yet from what these kids do read, from what these kids do hear, they dare to dream of jobs in nursing, teaching, carpentry, medicine. High school requires success in an entry exam and the ability to pay the fees. As a cashless society, mothers fret about the ability to pay the fees, the means by which they might gather the fees, and the loss of theirchildren across the waters to another island's high school.

You can help. Your friends can help. Others are helping. More and more women are helping.

About The Author Dr Wendy and her husband Richard are the Founders of YouMe Support Foundation, supplier of non-repayable education grants . Over the past four years they and their guests have provided desperately needed school supplies to remote island communities in the far north of Vanuatu through Seachange Lodge,Seachange Lodge YouMe Support Foundation in partner ship with Win a Resort is giving away Seachange Lodge on the Internet. All funds are placed into a Trust Fund to provide education for children who will never go to high school without outside assistance. You can assist by making a donation to the children by going to YouMe Support Foundation or Win a Resort.