VOLUNTEER AND HOLIDAY
If you would like to assist the local community with volunteering please contact us.
HOLIDAYS WITH BENEFITS.
When you come to Vanuatu we hope you visit our family on Rah Island. Through our booking coordinator and specialist travel agent/wholesaler Vanuatu Travel, you can be assured that we have done the best we can to connect you with locally responsible and reliable travel options across Vanuatu. That is a holiday that benefits everyone. You are helping local communities when you book travel with us.
HOW WE HELP REMOTE COMMUNITIES AT A GRASSROOTS LEVEL.
Vanuatu Custom Travel has a whole community approach to cultural tourism and community development. For example in working with Rah Island in the beautiful Banks region in the north, VCT communicated and collaborated with community leaders from the chiefs, elders, churches, women’s association and tourism association. Through tok tok (talking and sharing knowledge and ideas) VCT offered its services to aid local community driven initiatives by offering workshops, training, and developing a bridge between the island and the world through Vanuatu Custom Travel’s website and services. As a result, we have achieved an extraordinary result. We have succeeded where government (Vanuatu, EU and other international government aid organisations) and NGO (non-government organisations) have not. Our success on Rah continues to grow. Local people are now sharing their knowledge gained from working with Simon and Vanuatu Custom Travel with other island communities such as Mota Lava, Vanua Lava and Mere Lava.
On Rah Island, we have built up arguably one of the country’s highest standard bungalows and cultural tourism experiences for an outer island community. We have been a key player in using cultural tourism to assist the local community build the first First Aid Post and first kindergarten on the island. Our guests have helped with establishing a successful micro-finance loan program that has enabled local people to start or enhance small business projects and improve their quality of life on the island. We have helped by building sandbag walls to prevent sand erosion, sponsored the repairs and rebuilding of homes and roads after a damaging cyclone, and sponsored new cultural events such as the Round Island Canoe Race. We have sponsored many children to further their education through our support of the LURON Foundation. This Vanuatu foundation was established by Father Luke Dini and Rona Dini to leave a legacy that supports health, education and the environment especially in remote and disadvantaged communities. We have assisted with the donation of tools to help construct the first aid post, the kindergarten and our current project, the establishment of a grassroots technical training college in the Banks region. All along the way, we have checked in with the local community to assess any impacts on the people and environment and to support the vision of local villages.
The other key result is we have helped guests from all over the globe to be touched, moved and inspired by the beauty and serenity of local scenery, warm friendly hospitality, a vibrant living indigenous culture and a truly rare experience of community. We are a bridge between worlds for the purpose of cultural connection and understadnig that is of benefit of all.
