Teaching Community Skills In The South Pacific

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31115, 19 July 1966, Page 2

Teaching Community Skills In The South Pacific

One of the greatest desires of the people of the South Pacific is to improve the facilities of their homes and to learn practical skills for community work.

In response to this demand, the South Pacific Commission, under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, established the Community’ Education Training Centre in Suva in 1963.

In 1965, through the Nattonal Council of Women, New Zealand women gave £55 to the centre.

Mrs Elizabeth Eden, an F.A.O. regional home economist. says the money will be used to provide each graduating student with a basic tool kit, containing a hammer, saw, plane, and tin snips, to enable him to tackle home and kitchen improvement proects with village women. Students from the British Solomon Islands, the Cook Islands, Nauru Island, American Samoa, Tonga, the Gilbert Islands, Guam, Papua and New Guinea, go to the centre to study home economics and leadership for a year. Twenty young people graduated in 1964-65 and are now at work in many parts of the South Pacific, passing on their knowledge to island women. The work of the graduates is described by Mrs Eden in an F.A.O. release. The island women are so keen to attend courses held by visiting teachers that, on many islands, they will trek for up to three days over mountains and through swamps, often with their husbands and children, to reach the village where the course is to be held. “Coming to the courses under such difficulties may sharpen their appreciation of what they learn. At any rata, aopreciation and keenness are the principal reactions of all the island women," says Mrs Eden.

“Probably the most success fui experiment has been the smokeless stove. Most of the island women are now making them out of poured concrete—our girls from Suva teach them the technique. “This is an incentive to the women to keep their kitchens clean because the stoves provide them with hot water. Also, they stop eyes becoming sore and infected from smoke fires, and prevent children from falling into open fires or spilling containers of hot water on themselves. “The stoves are economical —wood chips, sticks, peanut shells and coconut husks can be used as fuel; there is room for three cooking pots in each stove and an oven may be devised out of a biscuit tin,” says Mrs Eden. On one of the Cook group, leaders refuse to let the women take home their newlymade stoves until they have built a platform and chimney in their houses. One family has built a separate alcove off the kitchen with a corrugated tin roof and a chimney. To reach people of the outer islands, a fortnightly radio talk on items of interest to women is broadcast But this is not as effective as personal contact, which the people on remote islands need so much. Visits to such islands are hampered by lack of transport, but are made as often as possible.

The graduates often work under difficult conditions. One, attached to the community centre in Papua, has to walk for days through mountains to reach remote villages. Others have to paddle canoes through swampy areas. However, the enthusiasm of the women to learn new ways makes it all worth while. “The women ask for things we never would have thought of teaching them,” says Mrs Eden. CUTLERY TUITION In one place they wanted to learn how to use knives and forks. The graduate agreed to show them if they first bought and cooked proper food and learnt to use and care for such things as tablecloths. “The important thing is

that we are not trying to make them live in European ways, but only to improve on local customs so they will be healthier, know how to spend money wisely, and live better in their communities,” says Mrs Eden. “The great point is to start with what the islanders have, and improve it little by little. The main difficulties are that they find it hard to work together, and local leaders do not carry out any training.” The Suva graduates are establishing groups that will hold the women together and provide them with teaching material. Many people will have to be trained because the islands are so scattered and communications difficult Mrs Eden says the emphasis of the teaching must be

more on training for city living. “People must learn about modern lavatories, and even simple things like turning off taps. They must learn to mend fuses, pay water bills, paint their houses, put up doors, keep vegetable gardens, make furniture, and so on,” she says. “We would like eventually to have a male counterpart for our home economist to teach some of these things.” Community education is also important in helping the islanders adjust to community life. This includes agricultural instruction, hygiene, civic responsibility and forming organisations to carry out community projects. “CHIEF” SYSTEM “The ‘chief system is breaking down, and must be replaced by another system. It worked well when there was an enlightened chief, but sometimes it did not “Now islanders must get together and discuss their mutual problems and find out where they can get help in solving them,” says Mrs Eden.