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What is VSAConnect?
VSAConnect is VSA's Alumni Association for its returned volunteers and their accompanying partners. It aims to be an active and vibrant alumni community where you as a member can contribute towards building a groundswell of support for VSA across New Zealand.
VSAConnect members are connected through a bimonthly enewsletter and an online platform. Other activities will include speaking opportunities for returning volunteers, local get-togethers, connecting with fellow volunteers and sharing development knowledge.
The VSAConnect online platform with log-in and password access directly accessible from VSA’s website is now being tested. It is intended to be the foremost forum for returned volunteers to stay in touch with VSA. Go to the log-in page now to reconnect with returned volunteers or obtain your up to date development news and information. You can also discuss topics of interest through online forums, share photos and stories, and find out about upcoming events.
Please help us test our online platform
We are now testing the online platform and need you to participate NOW in this, by posting events, articles, photos and stories on the platform. You can also add your comments and reflections to the postings made by other members on the platform. VSAConnect will not know what its members think of the platform without your participation and response. This is a chance to share your knowledge, and help influence the format and future capabilities of the platform. So please get active now!!!
Look out for our survey
We have been wondering why not many of our VSAConnect members are posting comments on to the online platform. So... we have decided to explore this through a simple survey to those members who have not participated on the VSAConnect online platform—to try and understand why they are not participating, and learn from that. Please do complete the simple survey for us when it comes into your inbox next week.
About this enewsletter
This edition is designed to be viewed either in email or in your browser (if photos are not showing, click the "View this email in your browser" link at the top right-hand corner). It can also be printed straight from email or from your browser.
Please send us your feedback on any item in this edition, or send us new material for the next issue.
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Helen Clark on the global development agenda
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View video clips of former Prime Minister and now Head of the United Nations Development Programme speaking to VSA’s CEO Dr Gill Greer about the world after the Millenium Development Goals on VSA's website.
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Focus on Bougainville
VSA began working in Bougainville in 1998 with a programme that responded to the immediate needs of a post-conflict society. Today, VSA’s volunteers work alongside the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and non-government organisations. Together, they support public services, and enable community development and secure livelihoods for rural people. VSA has a field office in Arawa and a sub office in Buka. The Programme Manager is based in Arawa and a part time Programme Support Officer assists from the Buka sub office..
Quick facts
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The Autonomous Region of Bougainville, previously known as the North Solomons, is made up of the islands of Buka, Bougainville and another 166 smaller islands.
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Its name originates from French explorer Captain Louis-Antoine de Bougainville who sailed Bougainville’s east coast in 1768.
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The capital city is Buka (Arawa is the next largest centre).
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Official languages are Tok Pisin and English.
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Bougainville is volcanic, although Buka Island is almost completely made up of raised coral.
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Bougainville hosts Benua Cave, one of the world’s largest at 4.5 million cubic metres.
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Bougainvilleans have a matrilineal system of clan membership.
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While the majority of Bougainvilleans are Melanesian, the people of Takuu and Nukuman islands are Polynesian.
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Bougainville is included in Papua New Guinea's Human Development Index rating of 156.
Current assignments
VSA currently has 10 volunteers in Bougainville. Click here and select "Bougainville" from the drop-down menu to find out about the volunteers and their assignments.
Go to the VSA website for more stories and pictures on VSA in Bougainville, including what Emma found to do in her spare time in Bougainville.
Tell us about your Bougainville experience and what it meant to you!
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Making women count
Too often around the world, poverty wears a woman’s face. Complex social, cultural and political issues and inequity frequently deny women both voice and choice: the choice of whether or not to stay at school, to have sex, to have children, to marry or not. Domestic violence, constant pregnancy and childbearing and ill health disempower women and impact on their wellbeing and productivity.
Most of the world’s farmers are women, and yet they generally do not control the resources or own the land. And yet time and time again, it is women who drive development. The history of many countries have shown, that when women have the health, the time, and the education to participate in paid employment they will lift their families out of poverty.
If they have access to good reproductive health care and contraception like women here in New Zealand, they generally choose more for their children, not more children. As World Bank research shows they will contribute 90% of their income back to their family and community, unlike men’s 30-40%, so ensuring that their children's lives are better than their own.
Making women count
Money talks and when women have economic power they can become part of community decision-making, making decisions with men about family, community and village priorities.
But in the Pacific, women do not always have equitable access to economic opportunities. According to the Women’s Economic Opportunity Index, the Solomon Islands and PNG are ranked in the bottom five countries in the world.*
VSA is working with its partners in the Asia-Pacific region to give women the economic opportunities to help lift them and their families out of poverty. Our partners work in various ways to do this, for example by providing business training, employment opportunities and access to small loans and saving schemes.
But for women to be able to participate in society, to earn a living they also need to be healthy. VSA works with partners who are investing in the health of girls and women so that women can generate an income and support their children to go to school, to university, and the husbands to do the same.
In Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Bougainville VSA volunteers are providing support to partner organisations that are focusing on building skills to increase womens’ education, health, wellbeing and employment options. This work includes:
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providing access to sustainable economic opportunities
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providing small scale business training
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supporting organisations that offer small scale loans
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providing women who are victims of domestic violence with a safe place to stay, legal support and economic opportunities to be independent
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supporting access to good health for women.
Volunteer Service Abroad volunteers are working with our partners in the wider Pacific to give women the economic opportunities to help lift them and their families out of poverty.
Watch VSA’s video about its work with women in the Pacific, and read the six inspiring stories from our Pacific women.
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Fancy another assignment?
Biomedical Maintenance Adviser, Kiribati (1-2 years)
Support the Tungaru Central Hospital with the provision of quality health services for Kiribati citizens.
Crop Adviser, Samoa (2 years)
Assist the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to establish new fruit and vegetable crops, ready for market.
Machinist and Maintenance Adviser, New Guinea Islands (2 years)
Assist GS Model Construction to maintain equipment, with repairs and maintenance being undertaken by trained local staff, prolonging the overall life of the equipment.
Horticulture Adviser, Tonga (2 years)
Support the Nishi Foundation to improve yields and quality of field crops to increase incomes of Tongan Farmers. This assignment is based in Tongatapu.
Applications close Monday 2 December.
Go to VSA's vacancies page for more details and many more assignments. Enquiries welcome.
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Try a new recipe
If you are looking for a great Christmas present for family and friends, you can’t go past Been There, Ate That, a very colourful collection of more than 50 recipes complied by members of VSA’s Top of the South (TOTS) branch.
Most of the recipes are based on dishes that volunteers ate while they were on assignment (with a few notable exceptions such as the elephant stew) and they include some interesting anecdotes.
Been There, Ate That costs $15 (plus $2 postage and packaging). To order a copy contact Sandy Stephens or Eric McPherson.
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