Pacific Archives - Page 2 of 2

Feb 26

Transformative Hope – August’s Story

August sits on the round wooden stool beside her mud brick house. Her four children are running around playing games nearby. She looks down at the bare earth ground, before looking up confidently. “I have my dreams for my children and what I want them to become in the future,” …

Aug 15

The future for They Are Not Alone project

The They Are Not Alone (TANA) project started a few years ago, sparked by a lecture from Avondale’s Dr Brad Watson and spearheaded by one of the students who listened to the lecture, Linda Ciric. The initial campaign had two goals: to raise $100,000 through a partnership with ADRA Australia …

Oct 23

Blais’s Story

Blais sits relaxed in the plastic chair under his house. His wide grin reveals a friendly personality as he tells his story. It starts in another part of the Solomons: Choiseul Province, northwest Solomon Islands, where he was born. These days, Blais has a wife and two young girls, aged …

Dec 19

The Difference Water Makes

November is the hottest, driest time of the year in in the south-eastern provinces of Timor Leste and, in communities that have been affected by the recent El Niño drought, they are hoping for the wet season to begin soon. But in the village of Luca, the pump that supplies their …

Feb 29

Fiji: Navesau Teacher can still manage a smile

“At least I have free air conditioning now.” Talk about looking on the bright side. John is a teacher from Navesau on Viti Levu, Fiji’s main island. During the wild winds of Cyclone Winston, he lost his house. Not quite all of it, admittedly. Three of the four walls still …

Feb 23

Fiji: Family now sleeping in their car

“This is my first time to experience such a devastating hurricane. It was very devastating and very frightening.” Kalisito and his wife Francis came home from church with their four daughters on Saturday afternoon, and quite literally walked into one of the largest recorded cyclones in the southern hemisphere. The …

Feb 21

Fiji in the dark following Winston

Twenty-four hours after Cyclone Winston smashed Fiji the full picture of the destruction remains unknown. Power, water, communication, roads and other vital infrastructure remain cut and many parts of the country, including the regions likely hardest hit by the Category 5 storm, are uncontactable. The official death toll has risen to …

Dec 04

Riding high for girls to Blossom

Bonnells Bay (NSW) Mother and son team Louise and Nat Ginn are all set to ride a gruelling 1,000 kilometres over 10 days to raise $100,000 for the Blossom Project. Their epic journey will begin on Monday 14th December and take them from Sydney to the peaks of Mt Kosciusko …

Nov 10

All I Want for Christmas

I can still remember the disappointment. It was Christmas time and I must have been about eight years old. Like every other kid my age I’d been counting down the day until I could finally unwrap my stack of presents. The night before, I was so excited that I could …