NZ VSA workers using enterprise with detainees in Vanuatu

Rob Wait and Katy Buess are New Zealanders whose work for the Volunteer Services Abroad (VSA) is helping rehabilitate detainees in Vanuatu.

They are preparing to head back to the island nation for their third VSA work assignments.

RNZ Pacific's Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor spoke to Rob Wait from their Invercargill home.

Wait explained that his carpentry skills had been very useful; helping the detainees learn to build beds, tables, and other furniture which they could sell to raise funds. He and the detainees also constructed an extension to their small wooden workshop.

"Well, the project began back in 2009 when Katy and I were on assignment in Port Vila and Vanuatu, and I was assigned to a little workshop in the Presbyterian Church compound."

"Last year, when I came back to the prison with Katy, my wife, and also having learnt some Bislama language from previous [trips], we were able to sort of start to pick it up again reasonably quickly and that was a massive help to gaining people's trust."

Wait spoke about the importance of working with local people, to ensure the workshop would continue operating after he returned to New Zealand.

He had employed Knox Regenvanu, a local, in a workshop attached to a Presbyterian Church yard, and knew he would also be perfect for the rehabilitation centre.

Wait found a job for Knox at the prison workshop in 2009, and when he returned to Vanuatu in 2023 Knox was still in charge.

Another vital project for Wait has been raising the hygiene and food safety levels of the prison so that bread can be baked to be sold. It is hoped that enough income will be gathered from the sale of bread to pay for the loaves consumed by detainees. This is important, as the detainees must generate their own revenue to keep these programmes operating.

"It was like a triage situation, when you walked into the kitchen, you had to put your nose in your shirt, and flies were buzzing around."

"There was no way you could sell anything out of that kitchen that people would want to buy before it was fixed up a little bit."

As well as a clean up Wait installed a fan, which kept flies away and helped dry out the kitchen floor, allowing them to work in a more hygienic environment.

Part of this work also involved installing a biogas plant, as the gas supply in Vanuatu is very expensive. The plant saves money, by taking food waste from the site and creating gas for cooking. Thus reducing the need to purchase as many gas bottles.

Wait is also the founder of Lillipad which constructs and markets a toilet squat platform.

He and Katy will be putting business on hold in April, to return to Vanuatu and continue their VSA work.