Help me get to Vanuatu!

As part of the third year of the Bachelor of Midwifery degree at Otago Polytechnic, students are given the opportunity to travel to Vanuatu and complete a month long placement in the Port Vila Maternity Unit.

This placement provides an amazing opportunity to work within a maternity system very different from the one we have here in New Zealand; with limited resources and staffing it will be a very challenging yet rewarding environment to work in.

While we are over there, we work full time in the maternity unit; facilitating births, looking after Mums and their babies and generally helping out as much as we can!

I believe that the experience will help me to grow in confidence as a midwife and will help me to be ready to face my final year of training before becoming a registered midwife. It will also give me the opportunity to be immersed in a culture very different from my own; I'm sure this will be an incredible experience for me, especially considering I've never been out of New Zealand.

This year the school had an overwhelming number of students request to go, so as a result we all had to be very flexible with our schedules, and go whenever they could find a space for us. I have been very lucky to be offered a space at the beginning of next year, which I am extremely grateful for; however I had planned to go later in the year so that I would have more time to raise the funds to get myself there. So that's where you, my beautiful friends and family, come in!

Every little bit helps, even if just $1. I am hoping to raise money towards covering the cost of my flights and my accommodation whilst over there; anything raised above this will be used to purchase hospital supplies and equipment to take with me and donate to the maternity unit.

Any donations or idea's for fundraising are very much appreciated!

Thank you for your time!