We recently marked the important milestone of 60 years in Papua New Guinean volunteering programme! Here’s what VSA’s Te Tumu Whakarae (CEO)—Kate Wareham, had to share about this remarkable event, “Bill Backhaus, our Volunteer Recruitment Manager, and I visited Papua New Guinea in August to spend time with our VSA team there, to meet with partner organisations and volunteers and to host events to celebrate our 60th year as VSA. We spent time in Kavieng, Kokopo, Buka, Arawa, and Buin, all key places where we base volunteers and focus our relationships with communities. I returned confident that both our Papua New Guinea and Bougainville programmes are going strong with partners engaged and ready to receive volunteers now that borders are open and visa issues hopefully behind us.”
The theme of the night was Mā te mahi tahi, ka ora tātou katoa (By working together, we all will thrive). Kate acknowledged the presence of our partners, emphasising that we will continue to work together towards building a world with thriving communities.
Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi – With your basket of knowledge and ours, all of us will thrive.