Letter from Dr. Mere Sovick 
CEO and Founder,
Melanesian Women Today

Happy New Year 2021, and greetings respected friends from afar and near 

The year 2020 has come and gone, but certainly not without the impact that is still felt all around the globe today. Despite it being quite a challenging year, it has also called us to find a new level of unity in our common and shared humanity. The juxtaposition of this historic moment has also provided us with an opportunity to reflect on life’s priorities, and more importantly, work harder to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable future for all. 

Melanesian Women Today (MWT) is truly honored and humbled to gain the inspiration, strength, and resilience from the communities of the indigenous women of Melanesia, and the people of the Pacific at times like this. Their wisdom to rise to many challenges such as colonization, globalization, climate change, and yes, a pandemic through a collaborative effort, and an attitude of growth instead of a fixed mindset of duality - success or failure has been an eye opener. Gaining from that paradigm has allowed us to approach this past year, and move on into the new year with a more renewed outlook. An outlook with a more fluid mindset of not just a ‘me’ attitude, instead with an attitude of ‘we’, together on this journey of learning and growing together. This has been a source of strength and renewed hope with good faith for us as an organization and our partners.

Our work cannot be impactful without drawing on the knowledge and life experiences of the women and girls, as well as youth alike. We have learned that the process of creating a more just, equitable, and sustainable future requires an attitude of humility as well as utmost respect on our part. While we realized that this is a process of ongoing learning, we also acknowledge that our work in the Melanesian region is valuable and just as important. We believe we cannot do our work effectively without continued deep listening, authentic trust-building, and perpetuated learning alongside each respective woman community group along with our guiding member committee in the Melanesian region. We value and recognize the unique perspectives and roles of these communities of indigenous women that we work with, along with the help of our guiding member committee as the gatekeepers of the resources and knowledge we need. They hold solutions that can help contribute to our efforts, and to make a more accessible, equitable, and supportive of a regenerative, sustainable future for all.

Together, I believe that we will continue to grow and make a difference as a community.

Without further ado, I am honored to present the 2020 Annual Report, reporting on all the activities that took place this past year. 

Melanesian Women Today 

WE CAN DO IT!

Student Led Service Learning Project

Girls Scholarship Project

Girls Scholarships 

It is a grim reality that only 7% of girls from the Solomon Islands graduate from high school. In an attempt to combat this problem, a partnership with MWT and the Odyssey Middle School on Bainbridge Island, in Washington State, in the U.S.A. was set up to raise funds to sponsor school girls in the Solomon Islands so they can go on to graduate from high school.

Every year, students from the 7th and 8th grade get to participate in a six-week student-led service learning project organized through MWT with the help of a team of local service-oriented volunteers. The team members of MWT help guide the students and volunteers through the different projects. 

In 2020, a student-led service learning project led by four middle school girls took every opportunity to drive meaningful change with the help of your support to - empower girls through education - and made significant gains in raising $3,693.50 U.S dollars. This effort is a continuation from the 2019 girls scholarship project, when eight students helped raise over $1,000 U.S dollars to sponsor 10 girls.  

As of today, your support has doubled our impact with this year’s scholarship project of making sure that not only do we continue to support the 10 girls so they can stay in school, but also are able to give more girls the opportunity of a life a time. We are excited to announce that because of your generous giving, we are able to add 5 more girls to the scholarships program for the 2020-2021 school year, which brings the total to 15 girls altogether who will now be able to return to school during this month of February because of your generous help. 

This year, the project team was able to add care packages donated by the generous Odyssey community of families and friends to be shipped to Auki Community High School in order to provide the girls with their essential needs.

Student Led Service Learning Project

Takuu Book Drive

Harnessing the power of two different communities to build resilience in the face of climate change through service learning is the transaction that happens at the crossroads of youth development, community development, and community resilience. The service learning project with the 7th-8th graders of Odyssey Middle School, and the Takuu, or Mortlock Island, community is a story of resiliency and revitalization. 

The emergent concept of service learning and the story of Takuu Library book drive is one of strength and resurgence because it focuses equally on community problem solving, student growth, and common good in response to the destruction of the Takuu community library by a king tide which is  a result of the ongoing threat of climate change. The community library is the only source of information on the island since the 60’s and is the most prominent landmark for the village. 

In response, the Takuu or Mortlock community along with our partner organization, the Takuu Island Climate Change Association (MITCCA) are leading climate change strategies, often combining traditional practices, cutting-edge science, and inviting communities of young people around the world to join them in solidarity building of resilience for their community, and ecosystems in the face of increasing climate risks. In return, that shared experience allows the students to learn about the changing relationship between the Takuu community, their land, and the surrounding environments in the face of rapidly accelerating climate change and its impact on their livelihood. With no internet access or mobile phone service to the community, this has meant that their reliance on the library is even more essential. 

Since the Takuu library remains bare to this day with very limited books for the community, families, and school students to utilize, a group of 7th-8th students from Odyssey choose to stock the library up again by organizing a book drive in February of 2020. By March 6, 2020, the students collected over 379 books just before Covid-19 pandemic hit, which placed a halt on the second stage of the project, and that is to fundraise for shipping the books to the Takuu community.  

A library without books is not much of a library, and communities are in need of books. 

This is especially true in light of the fact that the Takuu community is without internet, or mobile communications. The Atoll Islands, north of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, remain the most isolated and disadvantaged communities in the country. 

With your help, this year’s service learning project team will be able to ship over 379 books off to the Takuu community that were part of last year’s book drive.

Literacy

Last year, MWT celebrated 8 years of operation in the South Pacific region of Melanesia as a non-governmental organization in the country of Vanuatu where it is officially registered. To mark the 8 years of work, a joint outreach partnership project was held with a focus on the theme of respect of the indigenous languages of Vanuatu, literacy, cultures of Vanuatu and the environment during the popular, annual Christmas in the Park event held in the capital of Vanuatu on December 4th, 2020.

This joint outreach project was conducted through a communal learning approach with one of our women community programs, Vanuatu Mamas’ English Class, the Department of Forests with the Government of Vanuatu, and the Vanuatu Broadcasting Television Corporation. The goal of this outreach was to create an opportunity to highlight the importance of literacy in Vanuatu, and at the same time, celebrate the indigenous languages of Vanuatu by incorporating culturally responsive instructions in our literacy children’s activities during the event along with giving children an opportunity to explore and learn about the natural environment, in particular the endemic plants of Vanuatu and the Pacific.

Parsing the difference in cognition and worldview between Western languages (English and French) which are the two foreign languages most commonly used in Vanuatu, and the 110 plus Ni-Vanuatu languages, we realized that in order to address the low literacy rate in Vanuatu, we had to combine all three relevant areas that are intrinsically cognitive to the learning of ni-Vanuatu people because language, community, and the environment are irrefutably intertwined in Vanuatu languages and culture. During the event, children were given the opportunity to partake in traditional weaving of baskets led by the Vanuatu Mamas English Class, storytelling, learning about backyard gardening, and the endemic plants of Vanuatu. This gave the children and adults participating a relevant context in English literacy.

We believe that focusing on community-based solutions and community self-determination are two key factors to finding solutions to help our collaborative efforts. These approaches also support the women to stay focused on their work as advocates for English literacy as well as indigenous languages by continuing to incorporate culturally responsive instruction in their work so that more families can be encouraged to incorporate reading in their homes, and children can relate to reading materials that are made available to them exciting as well as relevant. 

Podcasts 

In 2020, we launched two podcasts, “Coming To the Mat” with Dr. Mere Sovick and S.H.E. (Sista Hemi Empawa) with Valorie Patrick. 

These two podcasts seek to inform, break cultural barriers, and invite listeners to hear real human stories.  While not always the most lighthearted episodes, both podcasts are so wonderful because they fight against the dehumanization of people from other backgrounds and cultures, and they do it through storytelling. Storytelling is better known as a common practice of passing on information and knowledge in all Pacific Island cultures. The art of storytelling is a way to sustain communities, validate  peoples’ lived experiences, history, and epistemologies. 

COMING TO THE MAT with Dr. Sovick, features stories from women from all walks of life across the Pacific, and the South Pacific island diaspora ( NZ, Australia and the USA), as well as expertise sharing their knowledge on current and past events related to the well-being of Pacific peoples, and the wide pacific diaspora around the globe.

Coming to the Mat podcast is also broadcast on two radio stations in Vanuatu - Radio Vanuatu and FM 98 and also by Radio Skidrow 88.9FM in Sydney, Australia hosted by Robert Anita on his show called ‘Melanesian Drum’. The show aims to bring together Melanesian communities around Australia and the Pacific by sharing information about Melanesian culture, history and emerging issues. Mr. Anita is a trained radio journalist volunteer from the Solomon Islands living in Australia. 

S.H. E. (Sister Hemi Empawa) with Valorie Patrick is a monthly podcast that is also aired on public and community radio. The S.H.E. podcast programs are broadcast by two radio stations reaching two different countries. It is broadcast by Radio Vanuatu in the national language of Bislama in Vanuatu, and by Fresh FM, a community radio station in Motueka, New Zealand. It is hosted by Valorie Patrick on her show called ‘YUMI TALEM’. Mrs. Patrick is a trained radio journalist volunteer and mother of two from Vanuatu.  She is also a New Zealand resident.  
S.H.E. is an educational podcast designed for women who have never married, are divorced, widowed, single mums from all economic and social backgrounds, and single mums who want to move forward. This is a monthly radio and podcast program specific to women’s issues and tailored with specific programs for each country.