International Volunteer Day Dec 5th

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Wednesday December 5th was international volunteers day. All the volunteers on Kiribati- German, Japanese, Australian and New Zealand had the day off work to celebrate being international volunteers by... volunteering for the day.

It had been arranged by Linda the local lady who looks after the Australian volunteers, and until Trevor arrived from NZ to become the Programme manager for VSA here in Kiribati, us kiwis too. We joined with the local community to do a beach clean up on the causeway at Taborio and also planted a few hundred mangrove shoots which when they grow should help to protect the islets from the sea. You dig a hole in the coral sand, not always an easy task, and plant three shoots in each hole, the theory being that at least one shouldn't be washed away. There are examples of such planting along different sections of the foreshore up and down the atoll and hopefully over time they will grow and help protect the islands.


It was an early start (7am) due to wanting to do it at low tide and in a couple of hours we collected over 600kgs of rubbish and once finished Linda's community put on a breakfast for us. The rest of the days was our own and then in the evening there was an official function at the Australian High Commission where we were all presented with certificates for our efforts out here in Kiribati this year. It was a really enjoyable day. 

Kiwi vols planting mangrove shoots

And the locals too

We had great support form the local community

Hopefully over the next few years the mangroves will grow. One of the ubiquitous Kiribati dogs checking out our handiwork. 

Some of the rubbish we collected

Local kids helping out collecting rubbish. 

The international and local volunteers

The Japanese vols and friends
Craig

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