EDUCATE
Vakameasina Seasonal workers seeking knowledge SOPHIE PREECE
WALTER NUNGNUNG finished school in Vanuatu when he was 13, but he certainly hadn’t finished with his education. For the past 11 years, Walter has left his home on Ambrym Island and come to New Zealand with the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, for seasonal work in vineyard. While here, he has tapped into the learning opportunities of Vakameasina, a free education development programme Walter Nungnung for RSE workers from the Pacific Islands, funded by New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT). and winter vineyard labour. As he digs into his second Walter started at Vakameasina with a “foundational winter of pruning, he is pleased to be able to send money course”, including lessons on finances, health and human back to his home, “so that I can help my family”. Earnings rights, then branched out into specifics like solar power. over the past 18 months have enabled his family to build a He has also done a leadership course, in part to help him house, “so I am very happy”, Walter says. in his job as crew supervisor with Thornhill. Walter is now Gordon Bahe, from Vanuatu’s Malakula Island, was also studying the New Zealand road code, and is eager to keep on his first RSE term when he came here for the 2019/2020 on learning. “I finished school at grade 6, so when I came summer season. For the past 18 months he has been sending here and this opportunity came, I thought, ‘this can help me money home for the build of a “big house” on the island, for my education’.” while studying the building course through Vakameasina Walter has a wife and children back on Ambrym, here in Blenheim, as well as the cooking course and now the and says the past 18 months have been “very difficult”, road code. with Covid-19 initially stranding him and his crew in The continued season for these RSE workers has not New Zealand after the 2019/2020 summer season. When only yielded houses, with Narufa Nakis, from Vanuatu’s repatriation flights became available, Walter decided to stay Tanna Island, now the owner of a Land Rover back home, on, knowing work would be difficult to come by in Vanuatu, which he plans to use for a business when Tanna’s tourism and that New Zealand contractors were short of summer sector is back in gear. Nrufa is studying the road code as
“As an industry we need to acknowledge the commitment and significant sacrifices the RSE workers have made to stay on in New Zealand since lockdown 12 months ago.” Guy Lissaman 18 / Winepress May 2021
a step towards his licence, and also plans to do a small engines course through Vakameasina. When the Vakameasina pilot programme was kicked off 10 years ago, Anne Barrer, who spent 26 years working as a tutor at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT), was one of the initial tutors, helping teach everything from basic English to healthy living, to help the RSE workers adapt to their time in New Zealand. Those essential skills are key to the programme, says Anne, who has been Vakameasina regional coordinator in Marlborough for the past seven years. But one of the things she loves most is when students seek learnings that can change their lives at home in the islands, some of which are very remote. “The idea was a gift of knowledge, and skills they can take back with them.” The programme, fully funded from MFAT’s aid programme, has developed over the years, thanks to
