2013: Season Four
We launched Rireana at the end of the cyclone season on 30 April 2013. We had spent the previous 6 weeks preparing her for another season of work in the tropics. After launching we proceeded to a mooring in Port Vila Harbour and lived and worked there before heading north to Malekula at the beginning […]
2012: Season Three
New Caledonia In mid-April 2012 we arrived back in Port du Sud marina, Noumea, and boarded Rireana. Thierry had kept very good care of her and we soon had her back in living order. On 1 May, the end of the cyclone season, we hauled Rireana out of the water at Nouville Plaisance, also in […]
Namaru Primary School solar power
Read more: https://www.butterflytrust.org/lighting-up-the-classrooms-at-namaru-primary-school-avock-island/
2012 season kicks off: Trust partners up with Auckland City Football Club
Football is a popular game throughout Vanuatu. In the Maskelynes, men risk injury to their ankles every time they kick a ball on the grassy sports field at Sangalai Centre School. Looking deceptively even, this pitch is no lawn. It is ridden with crab holes and players literally have to dodge the occasional chickens crossing […]
Help with transporting donated items to Vanuatu’s outer islands
The problem of transport and access Transporting items to the Maskelynes continues to be a challenge with no direct access by road or air. We are very grateful to the captain and crew of Tallship “Soren Larsen” for helping with the transport from New Zealand of donated items of medicines, books and clothing over the […]
Photographs of ‘Rireana’, our home and pivotal member of the Butterfly Trust
We use our yacht, Rireana, as a base for the work of the Butterfly Trust. Rireana is an Owen Woolley designed yacht, 10.6m long, 3.0m in the beam, with a draft of 1.9m. She is sloop rigged with an added inner forestay. She is constructed of wood – triple skin, diagonally planked kauri – […]
Tackling rural health issues
“COME & BE HEALED” With a population of 260,000, 32 doctors* and a shortage of nurses, access to primary healthcare remains a formidable challenge for the majority of ni-Vans living in the outlying areas of Vanuatu. Other hurdles slowing down access to quality primary healthcare are the cost of training, the lack of proper training facilities and […]
2011: Trade & Vocational News Part III
Butterfly Trust collaborates with Vanuatu Institute of Technology With its main campus in the capital, Port Vila and 2 smaller provincial training centres, the Vanuatu Institute of Technology (“VIT”) is Vanuatu’s largest provider of formal technical and vocational training. It runs a variety of programmes in various trades, business, tourism, hospitality and computing. The […]
2011: Trade & Vocational News Part II
RTC students to benefit from coconut oil generator The Butterfly Trust has now made the decision to donate the Listeroid generator, purchased in 2009 to run a coconut oil mill, to the Rural Training Centre (“RTC”) in the village of Pellongk. It came to the point where the logistical difficulties involved with setting up […]
2011: Trade & Vocational News Part I
Brian has the flare when it comes to solar Despite having spent consecutive 12-hour days repairing generators from all over the Maskelynes, American sailor Brian Basura and his wife Claudia Richardson from SY “Skylight” did not hesitate when the Butterfly Trust approached them out of the blue with a request to run a course on […]
