The tent that brought children back to school

Joana and Daisly used to miss school regularly before Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu. 
The unique experience of learning in a tent has brought them back. 
UNICEF Pacific/2015/Berthe

When Joana and Daisly share their experience of Category 5 Cyclone Pam, I can hear the horror of that night in their voices – voices that remind me of my two young sons and our own night of terror.

Seven-year-old Joana is from a small community in Port Vila. She was home with her younger sister and her parents when the cyclone hit Vanuatu with devastating force on 13 March 2015. She tells me the wind was so strong they had to shelter in a nearby shop after the cyclone ripped the roof of their house off. Fear still echoes in her voice when recalling the events of that night six months ago.

Cyclone Pam three months on: A school on the road to recovery

Ellen, a 13 year old student from St Joseph school near Port Vila stands outside the tent
that has been her classroom since cyclone Pam destroyed part of the school. If not for the
shelter supplied by UNICEF, students would have been sent home on a rotating basis.
© UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/McGarry

Three months after Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu with devastating force, Vila North School is a study in contrasts. Children released for break scream with delight as they scamper from tents set up as temporary classrooms, past the destroyed parts of their school. Builders work around them, replacing the roofing on classrooms and rebuilding destroyed facilities as teachers plan their lessons from a temporary office inside a repurposed shipping container. Students and teachers can see the progress around them – but much remains to be done. 

The best kind of traffic jam

 Long line of pick-up trucks loaded with tents and other education emergency
supplies ready for distribution to 11,000 children in more than 120
cyclone-affected early childhood centers and primary schools

Normally I dislike traffic jams, but I couldn't be happier to see this one. It doesn't matter that it’s 30 degrees Celsius here on Tanna Island, Vanuatu and that I’m drenched in sweat; seeing a long line of pick-up trucks loaded with tents and other education emergency supplies ready for distribution to 11,000 children in more than 120 cyclone-affected early childhood centers and primary schools makes my day. 

A magic suitcase to bring back hopes and dreams

By Elodie Berthe -14 May 2014

After a short drive from the UNICEF office in Port Vila, through streets lined with homes and shops in various stages of post-cyclone reconstruction, we arrive at Fresh Wota Field; a big empty grassland with two goal posts. Small houses of different shapes and colours surround the young people engaged in an intense game of football despite the equally intense heat. 

We park under a tree to escape the heat and wait … and wait … for our scheduled rendezvous. We talk to the football players, make some phone calls and, just when we are about to leave, there they are; fifteen children carrying balls, water, a bright blue UNICEF bag and a big metal box.

Children of Fresh Wota, Port Vila, carrying the recreation kits distributed by UNICEF
© UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/Elodie Berthe 

Children go back to school in Vanuatu

Pupils sit inside a UNICEF tent, being used as a temporary school
structure © UNICEF PACIFIC/2015/Sorkhin

After a disturbing event like Cyclone Pam it's important to get children back to learning and playing as soon as possible. Unfortunately, many of the schools in Vanuatu were heavily damaged and will take months to rebuild. But, thanks to UNICEF's support, pupils from St Joseph's College and Vila East Primary school were able to get back to school yesterday.

A father prioritises his daughter’s education amidst the destruction

Story of 10 year old Joana from Black Sand area on her experiences when TC Pam hit Port Vila and how she and her family fled to her aunty’s house for safety. Her father, Edward, says that despite losing their home and their crops and not having enough money, his priority as a father is to get his children educated. UNICEF Pacific/2015/Further Arts

Edward Bani understands sacrifice. He supports his family in Black Sand, one of Port Vila’s poorest communities, by working as a labourer building roads on Tanna Island, a boat journey of several days from Vanuatu’s capital. He was there when Cyclone Pam, an unprecedented Category 5 tropical cyclone, hit Vanuatu, bringing absolute destruction and affecting more than half the country’s population on 22 islands.

600 children can resume their education after UNICEF school supplies reach Cyclone-hit Tongoa Island in Vanuatu

UNICEF Education emergency supplies arrive in Tongoa
on the 23rd March. UNICEF Pacific/2015/Kyaw

600 children on Tongoa Island, one of the 22 islands in Vanuatu hardest hit by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Pam, have received school supplies from UNICEF that will allow them to return to school. 

Khin Maung Kyaw is an Education Field Officer from UNICEF Myanmar, who has been deployed to Vanuatu following a request from Vanuatu’s Ministry of Education and through the National Disaster Management Office to assist with the emergency response. Although this is his first time to Vanuatu he is no stranger to emergency repsonse including Cyclone Nargis which badly affected Myanmar in 2008. He tells the story of UNICEF’s efforts to get essential school supplies to children on remote Tongoa Island.

15 Primary Schools in Fiji Have Improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Facilities

Tiled floors, a mirror and a washbasin with soap – these seem like the basic ingredients for a school bathroom. For students of Nasautoka District School and many others in Fiji, this was not always so.

UNICEF Pacific donates tents and tarpaulins

By Atenia Tahu

UNICEF Pacific donated three 80m² tents and 20 tarpaulins to the Honiara City Council, for use by people who fled from floodwaters between 3-5 April. The tents are erected at the Festival of the Pacific Arts (FOPA) compound that is being used as an evacuation centre, and the tarpaulins are used on the roofs of leaf huts to prevent leaking when it rains. Around 350 people are currently sheltering there.

Honiara City Council volunteers assist in transporting UNICEF tents to the FOPA compound. © UNICEF Pacific/2014/ATahu

Solar power enhances learning

Photo of Ivory Kete, during her maths class at 1:10pm © UNICEF Pacific/2014/ATahu

Ivory Kete, 14, is a grade five student at the Titinge Primary School, located on a ridge along the southern outskirt of the capital, Honiara. I met her recently when I accompanied a UNICEF photographer capturing world class photos of children and children’s issues in the pacific.

Back to School Support for Children Affected by Tropical Cyclone Evan

Tents that will act as temporary learning spaces, and School-in-a-Box kits to equip the temporary classrooms, were part of the support provided by UNICEF to the Ministry of Education to help get children back to school. In addition, back packs containing stationery sets are being provided to assist with the educational needs of primary school students affected by Tropical Cyclone Evan.

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Education is critical to a child’s development and well-being

Education is critical to a child’s development and well-being. UNICEF Pacific in partnership with Ministries of Education and regional organisations devotes special efforts to giving all girls and boys equal learning opportunities. Innovative approaches are being used to ensure children complete basic education and achieve learning outcomes; addressing the holistic development of the child; and contributing to learning and motivation to encourage children to remain in school and to complete basic education. Watch videos produced by young people showing the situations, challenges and opportunities facing children and youth in the pacific.