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PROJECT VANUATUMartin and Elizabeth BevanRoving Rear Commodores(Martin and Elizabeth left the UK in 2010 aboard Caduceus, their Amel 54, and spent time in the Caribbean and on the US East Coast before heading through Panama into the Pacific early in 2014.

They spent the period from late May until early September 2015 in Vanuatu, assisting remote island communities recover after Cyclone Pam by providing medical services and aid supplies and equipment. They worked closely with Lynn and David Colbert of the Butterfly Trust (www.butterflytrust.org) who, over the past seven years, have gained extensive experience in South East Malakula and the Maskelyne Islands supporting education and health.

See the September 2015 OCC Newsletter for further information about Martin and Elizabeth’s time in Vanuatu.)

Until 1980 Vanuatu was jointly governed and administered by the British and French, and known as the New Hebrides. It is an archipelago consisting of 83 islands spread over 300 nautical miles, the main islands being Efate, Espiritu Santo, Malakula and Tanna, and has a population of approximately 250,000. It is a country with a colourful history and rich, living culture. Each island has its own culture and traditions that are

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being carefully maintained, but this cultural diversity makes it a particularly difficult country to govern, especially given the lack of infrastructure, small population and even smaller GDP. Language is an issue, as there are many distinct local languages in addition to Bislama, the national language, and both French and English.

We sailed from New Zealand in late May, two months after Cyclone Pam swept through Vanuatu, heavily laden with bags of secondhand clothing, household equipment, old sails and rope, books for school libraries, and some medical supplies and equipment. Once in Port Vila, the capital, on the island of Efate, we were able to top up our supplies from various NGOs and charities as well as from the central pharmacy at Port Vila Hospital, an advantage of being officially ‘on the books’. The Butterfly Trust were especially helpful in liaising with the authorities and with introductions in the Maskelynes.

Elizabeth had, after some frustration with bureaucracy, been accredited by the Vanuatu Ministry of Health to practice as a doctor. This proved most valuable as it allowed her to work closely with nurses and health workers in the islands. We were fortunate to receive donations totalling £5500 from family, friends, Masonic organisations in the UK and the World Cruising Club (organisers of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers and the World ARC). In addition, Masonic friends made in Whangarei, New Zealand helped with a range of useful clothing, toys and books. The donations enabled us to purchase food – in particular half a ton of rice – water tanks, water catchment equipment, roofing tools and a myriad of other items that we had been asked for.

We had visited Vanuatu in 2014 and formed an attachment to the Maskelyne Islands, and it was there that we wished to concentrate our efforts. During two ‘rotations’ through the area Elizabeth was able to work with the nurses, assisting with clinics and seeing more seriously ill patients where diagnoses were outside the local skill set. The Maskelyne Islands are some 100 miles from Port Vila, and referrals to the Central Hospital with its very limited facilities involved an open boat journey at night to meet the ferry, followed by a 30 hour trip, all at the patient’s expense. Many preferred to suffer

Loading half a ton of rice, biscuits and milk powder

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and die rather than face that, a situation Elizabeth found difficult to deal with. The lack of basic drugs and repeat supplies for chronically ill patients was another issue that we had to cope with by taking, where we could, supplies from the Central Pharmacy

in Port Vila and delivering them to dispensaries and individual patients.

On the ground treatment of a badly infected stingray woundinvolving debridement under local anaesthetic, injections and

advanced dressings. There was always an audience

There are no vehicles in the Maskelyne Islands or Akhamb, so it’s a ‘blue light’ wheelbarrow for Matilda who subsequently made a complete recovery following treatment for a badly infected leg

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There was a steady stream of more advanced diagnoses in areas of cardiac disease, diabetes and thyroid disease, to mention just a few. Elizabeth was also able to give joint injections, a speciality of hers not known in Vanuatu. There were other successes – she became an expert in curing badly infected stingray wounds, a not unusual injury amongst the young men who walk the reefs at low water fishing and then leave the wounds to fester before seeking assistance.

Water collection and storage is a major problem in many of the islands and was another area where we were able to help. We carried two 500 litre tanks on our aft deck on one particularly robust passage and, with the help of fellow OCC member Brian Wallace of Darramy, they were installed on the island of Awei together with guttering and pipework. Brian also repaired the existing concrete water cistern and two weeks later, following

s o m e h e a v y r a i n f a l l , t h e island had two full tanks and a half-full cistern where previously they had had to fetch water from the mainland by canoe.

Chief Soffran, Martin, Brian and the tanks. The nearest tank overflowed into the repaired cistern

Martin and Chief Soffran putting up guttering on Awei Island

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The children of Vanuatu are an absolute delight, and visits to the various kindergartens prompted us to return with six large bags of supplies, one for each kindy in our area of operation. We also supplied a further four 500 litre tanks for installation at kindies under the direction of local Butterfly Trust committees, for drinking water and hygiene.

It was appropriate that Akhamb was the last island that we visited on our second rotation, as the dispensary was completely out of drugs and dressings, having been very low on our first visit. Hagrif Frank, the excellent and hard-working aid worker, is solely

Some of the contents of a ‘kindy bag’ – we distributed six of them

Delivering a ‘kindy bag’ on the island of Avokh

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The Peskarus kindergarten sung us a song when we delivered their kindy bag

responsible for 1500 people on the island and nearby mainland and was in a state of despair at his inability to treat his patients. We were able to restock the dispensary and provide training on how to give penicillin injections, a vital skill in the treatment of the many badly infected wounds that we saw. One skill in great demand but which we were not able to provide was dentistry. We did, however, carry and deliver dental equipment from New Zealand to the Lamap Health Centre for the Butterfly Trust. Visiting dentists from New Zealand and A u s t r a l i a o rgani sed by the Trust wi l l ho ld s u r g e r i e s later in the year.

The dispensary at Akhamb

with the resupply laid out

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We were able to share the generosity of the World Cruising Club with Sherry and Denis Day of Trillium, also OCC members and participants in World ARC 2014, who concentrated their efforts on the island of Avokh, where they delivered a large amount of aid and training in construction, IT skills and organisation over a period of six weeks. In addition we received considerable assistance from Jonathan and Donna Robinson of catamaran Chez Nous, also OCC and World ARC 2014 participants, who were working with the US charity Sea Mercy. The early reports from Tom Partridge, OCC, who was in Vanuatu very shortly after the cyclone were most useful.

It was a sad farewell to our friends in the Maskelyne Islands, to Nurse Bambae on Uliveo, Hagrif on Akhamb and many others when we finally left. There was only so much that we could do to help, but we left with the genuine feeling that they and their communities had very much appreciated the assistance and support that had been given by ourselves and other visiting yachts.

Helping hands – offloading rice and other aid supplies at Uliveo

There is too much to describe about our experiences and not enough room in a short article, other than to give an impression of what we did during our time with the wonderful people that we met in the islands. Greater detail will be found in our web diary at http://blog.mailasail.com/caduceus.