Three Classrooms: Worth a Celebration
14 May 2020
On Saturday evening, after a week of dedicated milling, our Mill for Malo team were honored by the Najaraiwelu school community for their help. A special celebration was held, chiefly speeches delivered and traditional food enjoyed. The team were recognised for their service, their rapid and practical response to the TC Harold disaster and the impact of this project for the communities children.
Chief Alfred Mata noted that without the team, the fallen trees would be left to rot, instead of being used to help rebuild. He has a heart for his grandchildren and he gifted the wood from his land to the school, knowing one day in the future his grandchildren would benefit from this.
For their first weeks work, Joe and the Mill for Malo team milled over 2,000 lineal metres of timber - enough to rebuild and repair three classrooms! To put this into context, when I was on Tanna in 2016, over a year after TC Pam, there were many classrooms still in ruins, children being taught in emergency tent shelters. It is incredibly significant and empowering for this community, less than two months after the cyclone, to have the resources for their school to rebuild and for their children to return to learning in the not too distant future.
Work beings at Avunatari School
This weeks we are working with Avunatari Primary School. This school has sustained significant damage to its classrooms, as well as auxiliary rooms including the school kitchen, dining hall, library and staff house. The desks and chairs are ruined, and while, only a few years ago the school received a whole new library, today the few books that are barely salvageable are left to dry in the sun. Where there were once children running and playing happily on the fields overlooking the ocean, today the empty buildings stand forlorn.
But not for long! On Tuesday, 16 logs were prepared for another big week of milling. This time they're getting efficient, prepping all the logs first and bringing them to the school grounds, so they can spend the rest of the week creating timber to the builders specs. Yesterday, they whizzed through 7 logs creating over 400 lineal metres in one day.
With your help, one day soon, those children will again run to their classrooms and continue their education, because you responded with generosity! Once again, thank you for being part of the Mill for Malo team!
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