Tony Eddowes:
Next Saturday our club's Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) team will leave for FIJI for two weeks. We will be involved in the construction and maintenance of homes in a RotaHomes project called Koroio-Pita Village, named after Rotarian Peter Drysdale who founded it 10 years ago. Peter still spends most of his time there.
In that time 85 small cyclone proof homes have been built, each with a septic tank and kitchen. 22 homes will be built this year, mostly to accommodate sugar cane growers and their families who have lost their income due to the collapse of the cane growing industry. Finance for the project has come from a number of Rotary matching grants, and the NZ government. Currently there are 49 workers from the village employed on the project.
This is the third time that this club has sent a RAWCS team to the Pacific. Previous teams were 1998 to the Solomon Islands, and in 2000 to Papua/New Guinea. They were both vey productive visits and we hope this one will be too.
6 May, from Val Hansen in Fiji on the RACWS project
At last I have an internet connection. Work is going well. We arrived on Saturday. Spent the day on site on Sunday, but not working, had a most interesting time. And wow, what an energetic amazing man Peter is, you will hear more about him at a later date.
The men have spent the last 2 days building, I have spent mine painting. The 1st photo is the end of the 1st day's building, the 2nd: what a part of the village looks like, 3rd: Tony at lunch time!! The weather is quite warm, specially for those out side. I work in under cover. Will try to take some more interesting photos in due course. Time for me to catch up with the men for dinner. We are in a motel. The town is quite large, with numerous eating places etc. Mal and I are thoroughly enjoying it here. --- love it!!