Palm Project

Palm Project Newsletter 2016

Safe Clean Water for Melip

Like Mbonvor the year before it was time to bring safe clean water to Melip. Melip a village on the southern coast of Malakula with no road access and some of the roughest coastline in Vanuatu. It was going to be a hard job to deliver all the supplies necessary to complete this mission. This was all made easier with the assistance from Captain Thompson and his ability to navigate such difficult coastlines. Captain Thompson’s home is Uluveu so he has travelled these coastlines since he was a boy. Once all supplies were assembled at Melip the Uluveu Builders were also transported to Melip. A team of young builders from Melip were selected and the work began. Uluveu Builders Workshop with manager John Akurkur and Kalo Enrel as chief builder were able to complete this job in ten days. With both projects complete this joint initiative between Palm Project, Green Global and Aveda Cosmetics has bought safe clean drinking water to 1000 people at villages of Mbonvor and Melip. See gallery for photos.

Medical Report

Kylie Cyrus returned to Australia this year to have her prosthetic leg reconstructed. As Kylie grows also does the need for her leg to change to accommodate this. Kylie flew to Melbourne where she was meet and hosted by our medical officer Sally Peet. It was a successful time at Children’s First Hospital and Kylie’s Leg was rebuilt to fit her once again. Kylie returned home to achieve 2nd in class this year. Palm Project have an education fund set up for Kylie and once she is old enough she hopes to become a teacher.

Palm Project Soap Factory

Palm Project has filled its second large order for Trade Aid NZ this year.  Trade Aid has reported that they will continue to sell all three varieties of our soap and that the soap is selling very well. See Trade Aid Instagram. The Palm Project products are also selling well locally and in Port Vila. The coconut oil is extracted using the fermentation process and therefore virgin organic coconut oil is produced. The virgin organic coconut oil is also selling very well on the local market. Palm Project has earned 1,117,324.80 vatu the total amount being returned to the local community as Palm Project procure coconut oil, cacao, niang and tamanu from the local producers and pay wages to the soap factory workers.

Uluveu Builders Workshop

This year the workshop has been busy, completing the safe drinking water installation at Melip, building new classrooms at the school and constant maintenance of Palm Project, keeping the young builders not only occupied but employed. After Melip was completed the workshop built furniture for the local market. Their furniture has become very popular and it is good to see the old people sitting comfortably in chairs. See gallery for photos

Uluveu Nuwai Pavilion

Early 2016 a gecko got in the back of the inverter and happen to touch two opposing power points a fried itself to the board. This has now been repaired and precaution taken to keep the geckos out! The water machine is about to have its 5-year maintenance and we have decided to put a salt water tank closer to the water to stop any chance of an airlock on the journey from the salt water to the pavilion. Our technician, Dave Lawson formally of NZ now living in Vanuatu will travel back to Uluveu soon to finish this manoeuvre once the tank is in place. Dave works with Benson and Kalo and in doing so Kalo our local plumber is covering all aspect of Pavilion maintenance, upgrading his skills. We would like to thank Dave for his unpaid help and persistence to ensure all equipment is working to its maximum potential.

As things deteriorate both politically and environmentally on our planet, life gets harder for the 3rd world countries. Safe clean water is scarcer, radical weather patterns and cyclones become more frequent and man’s insistence on fracking and other devastating drilling techniques threaten peoples very existence. These are desperate times for all humanity, unsure times and unsafe times.

We have no choice but to forge ahead and do our best to work hard together to overcome such huge obstacles.