Kids in deadly conflict with custom living and the 21st century

Archipelago Modern Living

Vanuatu as a Lesser Developed Nation is struggling to adapt to the ways of the 21st century. But this has created a death struggle between the old and the new. Vanuatu has been based on the chiefly system where the direction of the societiesways, behaviors and growth was controlled by the community chief. Independence in 1980 saw in a parliamentary representative democratic republic that brought western ways to government and the organizational structures such as the law system, education and health.

The consequence has been a society that is caught in no-man's land. The power of the chiefs is changed by the democratic processes. Meanwhile the democratic processes struggle to gain acceptance and to be implemented. The vacuum is as much about high school as these processes, for the mass of people to understand the change.

Education is not free. Education is poorly funded with a mere 1% of GDP. There are so few resources that the schools outside of the two main population areas lack trained teachers, books and paper, pens and pencils. Education, limited though it is, is available across the archipelago to grade 6.

To go to high school requires the payment of fees. Money that is hard to find in cashless societies of the outer, remote islands. A society where thekids never eat ice cream, watch TV or ride in a car. A society where the basic needs are met by the local village garden.

Primary schoolfees can be paid in custom money - woven mats, shells, firewood, kava, pig's tusks. High school requires vatu notes. Real money is needed to pay the accommodation, to travel across the seas .

The charity YouMe Support Foundation based in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, has used its connections with Seachange Lodge todonate support to these isolated islands. Since 2004 guests at the small resort have contributed to the boxes of educational resources sent north. The owners, Rick and Wendy Tendys, set aside 10% of earnings to purchase items requested by the Mota Lava villagers. In 2008 the Foundation along with winaresort.com is offering Seachange Lodge, the private holiday home plus six holiday apartments, in a world first. Funds are placed in trust for the ongoing distribution of non-repayable educational grants to the kids from the northern islands to go to high school.

Throughout the21stcentury the educational level of Vanuatu can be raised. Aid donors, charities and NGOs are getting behind the friendly, smiling people to do what the government is unable to do. The hope of the nation lies in the education of the next generation of would-be leaders.

You can help these kids with the possibility of you becoming the proud owner CEOof a property in the South Pacific to share with family and friends. Take 10 minutes out to look to see how you can become a ‘Friend Educating Kids’.

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