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Project MARC Vanuatu!
Vanuatu Project Needs Volunteer Vessels to Help Transport Medical and Educational Supplies Between Islands.
"Dear Fellow Cruisers,
Between June and September 2001 Project MARC (Medical Assistance to Remote Communities) vessels "Flying Angel", a Wharram Narai MK IV catamaran, and "Rivendel II", a Hunter Legend 43 staysail sloop, carried 5 consecutive volunteer teams with a total of 24 doctors, dentists, nurses, teachers and technicians to anchorages in North Ambrym, SE Malekula and The Maskelynes. Here they were able to help some 35 small villages and more than 2,000 patients (representing nearly 5 % of the more remote communities in Vanuatu) using mobile clinic tents as well as abandoned dispensaries and by backpacking supplies to the remote villages while working in the village squares or nakamals. Besides delivering emergency medical care our teams trained 14 local health workers, opened or reactivated 7 aid posts and dispensaries, taught hygiene classes in 4 schools, adopted several primary schools and set up local oversight committees.
Detailed reports of this year's activities, ranging from team messages, travel reports and photo albums to operational plans, technical analyses and a team member application form can be found on our website by doubleclicking the Discussion Forum icon below the lighthouse and following the active links to the various message, bulletin and story boards.
No fewer than 10 cruising vessels, sailing Vanuatu waters under nearly as many different flags, provided generous help this year by transporting crucially needed medical supplies and equipment from Project MARC's Port Vila stockpiles to the various outer island destinations. Several cruisers have vowed to return in 2002, in some instances even changing their original schedules. Nonetheless, the rapid growth of Project MARC (a total of 12 volunteer teams will simultaneously build and operate small beach clinics in 3 different locations) will create opportunities for the involvement of nearly twice as many vessels in 2002 as participated this year.
If you are planning (or would be able) to operate your vessel in Vanuatu between May and October of 2002 and are interested in some type of participation, please e-mail us. Your potential involvement could be as simple as dropping off a few packages in some of the ancorages you were already planning to visit, to direct participation in the medical, educational or technical tasks ashore. Highly valued technical skills include installation, repair and maintenance of clinic buildings, solar power systems, water supplies, schools and village aid posts as well as telecommunication, quartermaking, exploration of uncharted bays and anchorages and installation of secure mooring buoys.
Are Project MARC teams planning to stay in the same island locations forever? Absolutely not. Our MOU with the government of Vanuatu emphasizes infrastructure and capacity building by reopening abandoned dispensaries and aid posts and training local aid post workers and nurses. Project MARC teams are scheduled to move on to new priority sites in Vanuatu or elsewhere in the SW Pacific within 3-5 years after their first visit to a given location while long-term support to island schools and clinics is taken over by sister schools and clinics in the industrialized world. Meanwhile, visiting cruising vessels are likely to remain a critical part of the long-term solution by their unique ability to re-supply the remote island communities.
Henk and Nelleke Meuzelaar
e-mail us at: meuzelaar@juno.com
Project MARC Coordinators
"Rivendel II", Port Vila, Vanuatu
* The July team at work in Fartapo (Banam Bay district) while chief Seitol keeps an eye on the procedures. See Terra-Watch House - Project MARC for more photos.