Building back better In Anamburu

When Cyclone Pam made landfall in Vanuatu in March 2015, thousands of people lost their homes, crops were destroyed, and 24 people were killed.

More than 3,300 people were displaced More than 3,300 people were displaced. Some people, like the man in this picture, lost all the walls and the roof of their houses. This man is sitting on the concrete slab which is all that is left of his living room.

During the rebuild of Anamburu, a residential area of Port Vila, a group of local builders got to know each other. With the help of Sr Pasqualine and Yvannah, these five builders formed the ‘Namburu Builders Association’.

Butterfly Trust worked closely with the Archdiocese of Port Vila to train the five members of the Namburu Builders Association to be Community Trainers. Then they trained the young people. The training, repairing, and rebuilding was funded by Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand and the Butterfly Trust. This new house was built for Marie Melteklesi (in the green dress). Her old house is to the right of the new house, under the tarpaulin.

One of the young people trained was Elizabeth Marktu. Elizabeth had never considered that building and repairing houses was something that she could do, particularly as a woman. However, she is grateful that all the trainers were very positive about teaching young women and men how to do construction work.

Here is the house that Elizabeth shares with her mother and sister. She had enough materials to repair about a third of the roof. This means there is one room that they can shelter in safely when a storm comes. Elizabeth says, I feel really happy, especially towards all our trainers who worked with us and supported us heaps throughout the programme. We got lots of experience and learned lots.

Elizabeth’s Mum, Lynda, is very grateful to Caritas and the Butterfly Trust. She said, If I were to pay for the repairs, it would be so expensive for me. They told me that they were only able to give me a little bit of assistance as they could only repair the space over the living room of my house, but from my perspective, my whole house is now liveable. I want to say thank you very much to Caritas.

The demand for repairs to houses was greater than the amount of funding available. This programme focused on partially repairing the roofs on 60 houses belonging to the most vulnerable people of the community (like widows and the elderly). The repaired section of the roof is reinforced so that it will remain attached in a future cyclone.

The trainers taught the young people different techniques for reinforcing the roofs of the houses, according to the shape of the house.

Some reinforcement techniques involved the use of metal strapping to attach the beams more securely to the roof, so that the houses can withstand high winds.

William Song is an Anamburu resident whose house was partially repaired with funding from Caritas and the Butterfly Trust.

Marie Eugenie’s house was one of three houses built from scratch by the Namburu Builders Association and the young people they trained. Marie is a widow but her family live all around her. The toilet and kitchen area is up the pathway to the right.

Photo Credits: Petra Wheatley and Crispin Anderlini.