Volunteer Service Abroad currently works throughout the New Guinea Island region, with its office situated in Kokopo, East New Britain. Our volunteers work for local government and NGO partner organisations across various areas such as health, education, agriculture, nutrition, IT training, and prevention of domestic violence. With an overall vision of a stable, sustainable, and prosperous Papua New Guinea (PNG), our common goal is to focus on improving the well-being of the people, protecting and enhancing the environment, and maximising opportunities for shared prosperity. Together, we aim to build an overall sustainable PNG community.
Our Impact
VSA has been in Papua New Guinea since 1970. Since 2005, we have concentrated on working in the New Guinea Islands' three provinces: East New Britain, West New Britain and New Ireland.
One of the major focus areas of our work with the health sector is supporting the government to halt and reverse non-communicable diseases. VSA continues to work and collaborate with the biggest hospital (Nonga General Hospital) in the New Guinea Islands region to improve health outcomes for the people of East New Britain.
VSA’s work in the education sector includes building and strengthening the capacity and capabilities of teachers and teacher trainees. VSA places volunteers in teacher training institutions and has helped over two thousand trainee teachers and counting.
VSA also supported Fresh Produce Development Agency (FPDA) and the East New Britain Market Authority (ENBMA) to improve the livelihoods of vegetable farmers. Through improving skills in better sustainable horticultural practices, farmers were able to increase yields and improve the quality of fresh produce, resulting in more income. In the fisheries sector, we worked with the National Fisheries College (NFC) to strengthen its capacity in various areas.
About PNG
Most people living in Papua New Guinea are Melanesian, but some are Micronesian or Polynesian. Located between the South Pacific Ocean and the Coral Sea, Papua New Guinea is unique in the Pacific, both in terms of its size and diversity: PNG is the largest Pacific Island country by land area, population, and GDP; and linguistically, although there are 4 official languages (Tok Pisin, English, Hiri Motu and Sign Language), PNG is the world’s most diverse country with over 800 languages. Geographically, it is also the only Pacific Island country that bridges the Pacific and Southeast Asia by sharing a border with Indonesia.
PNG has been a thriving civilization dating back to about 50,000 years with its first settlers, resulting in a productive agricultural system. Its current population is estimated at over 10 million. Stretching across a total land area of 452,860 sq. km, the mainland of PNG has approximately 600 islands. Port Moresby, also popularly known as Pom, is the largest city in PNG that serves as its capital.
PNG has had a complex colonial administrative history since the 19th century with rulers from Germany, Australia, and Britain. After World War II, the two territories—Papua and New Guinea – were combined to form the independent state of Papua New Guinea. PNG gained its independence in 1975.
The current PNG economy is based on mineral deposits like oil, copper, and gold that form most of the country’s exports. The other export items include agricultural products like oil, coffee, and cocoa, including fisheries. Since Papua New Guinea is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the region is susceptible to seismic activities. In the years 2018 and 2022, a series of earthquakes struck PNG causing immense damage. Various nations in Oceania, including New Zealand immediately deployed aid to the country.
The terrain of PNG comprises of a complex system of mountains covered by dense jungles of tropical rainforest. The archipelagic areas include three main islands – Bougainville, New Britain, New Ireland – collectively referred, including Manus, as the New Guinea Islands (NGI). A series of smaller isolated island groups surround PNG that contain both active and dormant volcanoes, an abundance of mineral wealth, and rich agricultural zones. The coral reefs surrounding the waters make PNG one of the world’s most biodiverse regions with over 7% of the world’s biodiversity found in less than 1% of the world's land area.
Why volunteer in PNG?
To experience what few people do! Not many New Zealanders have lived in nor even visited PNG. As one UniVol said “Volunteering in Papua New Guinea has given me an appreciation of a warm, generous and welcoming culture. Volunteers have a larger impact on the community than we may realise. Despite the challenges we face, our presence at our partner organisation and within the wider community goes a long way. Learning different backgrounds, characteristics, and stories all in one place; the diversity of PNG continues to amaze me! It’s unlike anything you would experience in New Zealand.” - Alexandra Linnell, Student Learning Support Coordinator