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Hundreds of people from different communities and age groups
attended the screen-ings which look set to be-come a fixture on the
Tarawa calendar. Our thanks to Kan-taake and Mack and the High
Commission staff for making the event such a success.
The Australian High Com-mission marked NAIDOC Week by hosting a
movie roadshow over three nights at the KNYC Mwaneaba Bairiki,
Ecuador Maneaba Betio and the Ionatia Mane-aba Bikenibeu. The
movies shown were selected from
the Australian Na-tional Film & Sound Archive’s Black Screen
program.
NAIDOC Week is held each year to celebrate Indigenous culture
and the con-tribution of Indige-nous Australians to modern
Australia. This year’s theme for
NAIDOC Week was 'change: the next step is ours'. Pamphlets
explaining NAIDOC week and the movies that were shown in English
and Kiribati were handed out to the audience at each screening.
The Australian High Commis-sion was pleased to be a part of the
2011 Clean up the World
(CUW) weekend. The High Commission registered on the CUW website
and staff did their bit by cleaning up around their homes and in
their communities. The High Commission also donated $500 to the
Minis-try of Environment and Con-servation Division to support the
day’s activities.
The Ministry of Environment held it's CUW weekend on
17 to 18 September where youth clubs from different areas and
religions participated in support of CUW.
Namona (right) and Barabuti help distribute the NAIDOC pamphlets
in Bikenibeu
NAIDOC Week 3-10 July I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :
NAIDOC Week 1
Clean Up the World
1
AVID Profile 2
AVI 60th Anniversary
3
TVETSSP Profile
3
UN Secretary Gen-eral and Mr Marles Visit
4
Launch of the Pre-School Initiative
5
More Photos of the Pre-School Initia-tive delivery
6 National Clean Up Weekend
A U S T R A L I A N G O V E R N M E N T Australian High
Commission
Tarawa Quarterly Newsletter S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 I S S U E
: 3
Andy strikes a blow for CUW
Jem and Champy help Brett with the clean up
Children at Ecuador Betio, enjoy watching Aunty Maggie
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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 I S S U E : 3
Peter and Nicole at the AVI 60th Anniversary
Maria Doyle
services company that he started with 3 other colleagues in
Sydney in 2007. When asked what he will miss most when leaving
Kiribati, Peter said “The sunshine, wearing thongs to work, fresh
fish, my pet pig, touch football every day, only hav-ing to wait 5
mins for a bus, and all the people I have met and made friends with
that I will one day have to say goodbye to..."
“While I hope to make a differ-ence at KIT, Kiribati has already
started making a positive change in me.” Peter Holden said. Peter
Holden, described by work col-leagues as a talented and humble
young man, arrived in Kiribati with his wife Nicole in March 2011
for a one year contract under the AVID (Australian Vol-unteers for
International Devel-opment) program. He is working
as a volunteer at the Kiribati Institute of Technology (KIT) as
an ICT Officer, aka the ‘IT guru’. He is responsible for developing
the IT vision and forward plan-ning to match the KIT direction and
mission statement. This includes anything from or-ganising the
maintenance of the computers, to procurement, developing policies,
making bad coffee and looking at ways of implementing new effective
IT practises that could benefit the institute. Nicole Holden
volun-teers for the Kiribati Protestant Church working two days a
week as an English and Study Skills lecturer at the theological
college. She uses her remaining time to work in the church's
project office. Before coming to Kiribati, Peter was a director of
his own IT
Peter Holden (AVID Profile)
Peter and Nicole enjoy a car ride along Tarawa
pleasure and an honour to be part
of it,” Ms Maria Doyle said. Ms
Doyle also organises Zumba classes
at the Ambo Lagoon Club 2 days a
week to encourage women, men
and children to participate in a fun
dancing exercise. When asked what
she will miss most when she leaves
Kiribati, she said, “The 'akea te kan-
ganga' attitude and bread fruit
chips”.
Ms Maria Doyle has been work-ing in Kiribati since February
2010. She is currently the Senior ESL Education Manager, where she
looks after English curricu-lum and testing at KIT. She also makes
sure that every staff mem-ber and student at KIT has ac-cess to
English support classes and resources and also helps look after
professional develop-
ment for lecturing staff so that classes at KIT can be of a high
standard. Ms Doyle first came un-der a PACTAM contract through AVI;
that stands for Pacific Techni-cal Assistance Mechanism that is
administered by AVI. “I love what I do and that's why
I'm still here after nearly two
years. I wouldn't change what I'm
doing for the world, and am so
lucky to work with such a commit-
ted, motivated, enthusiastic group
of staff at KIT. They make me
laugh every day, but are also hard
working and with all the positive
changes happening at KIT, it's a
Maria Doyle (TVETSSP Profile )
Maria Doyle
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ance, health, workforce skills development, environment and
infrastructure. AVI aligns its program with the Govern-ment of
Kiribati’s 5 Year Plan and the Australia-Kiribati Part-nership for
Development and shares the commitment to improving the lives of the
na-tion’s main asset - its people.
A traditional I.Kiribati te moi-moto toasts was made to
celebrate Australian Volun-teer International’s (AVI) 60th year and
its close to thirty years in Kiribati. The celebration was held at
the Australian High Commission on 17 August. The High Commission
was honoured to have H.E. President Anote Tong attend as the guest
of
honour. The teachers’ choir from the Kiribati School and Centre
for Children with Special Needs filled the evening air with their
dulcet tones, only to be matched by the current crop of AVI
volunteers in Kiribati who sang a special song of their own.
Entitled “We are Austra-lian Volunteers”, the song high-lighted the
experiences of a volunteer in Kiribati. It was followed by the
world pre-miere of a locally produced video documenting the life
and work of our Australian volun-teers in Kiribati. Over AVI’s 29
year partnership with Kiribati, the majority of volunteers have
worked in education (40%), with other areas of focus being in
govern-
AVI’s and supporters wear a blue traditional bee and white
blouse
AVI 60th Anniversary
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 I S S U E : 3
H.E. Te Beretitenti Anote Tong addresses the crowd
Welcoming Alison and Lydia to Kiribati the Status of Women in
the Prime Minister’s Department. Prior to working for the
Com-monwealth Government she was a social worker for 10 years
working for a while in the juve-nile justice system in South
Aus-tralia and then with the SA Men-tal Health Service.
The High Commission is pleased to welcome Ms Alison Smith and Ms
Lydia Bezeruk as the newest members of our team in Tarawa. Alison
has joined us from London as the First Secretary and Consul
replacing Mr Wade Carruthers who was with us for a year. Her
previous overseas postings have been in Noumea, Copenhagen,
Budapest and Phnom Penh. She also worked at the High Com-mission in
Tarawa in 1985 and again in 1986. Prior to joining Foreign Affairs
she was a teacher, and worked in Nauru and Tarawa. Ms Alison has
been to Kiribati 3 times.
Lydia joins the team as the First Secretary for AusAID replacing
Ms Sophie Mackinnon. Before joining AusAID 16 years ago, Lydia
worked in the Office of
Ms Lydia reads to students at the School for Children with
Special Needs
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Ms Alison Smith, First Secretary and Consul
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for young I-Kiribati seafarers that provides opportunities for
employment into international markets. This was followed by a visit
to a mangrove-planting site at Ambo where Mr Marles joined H.E.
President Tong, the UN Secretary-General and Mrs Ban to
symbolically plant man-grove trees as a first line of de-fence
against climate change. After the planting ceremony, Mr Marles
congratulated Kiribati for its global leadership on climate change
and noted that the UN Secretary-General’s visit had sent a strong
message to the rest of the world.
The United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon and the
Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Af-fairs, the
Hon Richard Marles MP, arrived in Kiribati on Sunday 4 September
for a two-day visit. The trip was part of the Secre-
tary-General’s visit to the Pacific to see the challenges faced
in adapting to climate change. Their first official stop was at the
Eita District maneaba (Kiribati traditional meeting houses), where
the visiting party was welcomed the traditional way.
The second day of the visit included a visit to Tebike Ni Koora
Village, a settlement that is feeling the effects of coastal
erosion and a lack of freshwater.
The delegation also visited the Marine Training Centre in Betio,
a training institution
United Nations Secretary-General and Richard Marles Visit
Kiribati
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 I S S U E : 3
Hon. R. Marles, H.E Beretitenti Anote Tong, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-Moon and Mrs. Ban, plant Mangroves at Ambo
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Kiribati
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon greets locals at a traditional
wel-come ceremony at Eita
Ataata Roniiti waits with excitement for the U.N
Secretary-General at Bonriki Airport
The Secretary-General tries his hand at a naval simulation at
MTC
Hon. Richard Marles is inter-viewed by the local media
The UN Secretary-General is guided through Abarao
Un Media
Un Media
Un Media
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On 27 July this year, the Australian High Com-
mission joined the Kiribati Ministry of Education
and the Kiribati Early Childhood Education As-
sociation (KECEA) to launch the National Pre-
Schools Initiative. We were honoured to have
the Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Pa-
cific Island Affairs, the Hon Richard Marles MP
and the Kiribati Minister for Health, the Hon
Dr Kautu Tenaua, attend as our chief guests.
The large crowd of pre-schoolers and their
parents who thronged the library for the
launch were treated to dancing performed by
pre-school teachers from Tarawa and book
readings by Dr Kautu, Mr Marles and other
invited guests. The book readings were also
broadcast live on the national radio so that
children on the outer islands didn’t miss out.
The initiative is a joint effort between the High
Commission, the Ministry of Education and
KECEA and was fully funded under the Austra-
lian Direct Aid Program (DAP).
It seeks to strengthen the pre-school sector in
Kiribati by delivering approximately 5000 high
quality books and learning aids to all registered
pre-schools in the country. There are cur-
rently around 220 registered pre-schools in
Kiribati. A large collection of books will also
be kept at the National Library for all to ac-
cess.
Launch of The National Pre-School Initiative
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 I S S U E : 3
Hon. Richard Marles, reads a book held by Ian Cosier to Launch
the Pre-School Initiative at the National Library
More than 200 children were gathered at the National Library to
witness the Launch of the Pre-School Initiative
Pre-School teachers perform the garlanding dance at the National
Library
Saint Marian Pre-School in Buota receiving their books
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I S S U E : 3 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1
MORE PHOTOS Of THE NATIONAL PRE-SCHOOL INITIATIVE
Delivering books to preschools on South Tarawa
Delivering preschool books to Butaritari
Agabe Pre-School Temaiku (left) and Bairiki KPC Pre-
School (right)
SDA Betio Pre-School (left) and Saint Annes Pre-
School Bairiki(right)
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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 I S S U E : 3
Upcoming Bar Nights
• 28 October
• 1 November (Melbourne Cup)
• 18 November
• 9 December (Christmas party)
Fishing Competition Dates
• 15 October
• 12 November
• 10 December
Australian High Commission, Tarawa P.O Box 77 Bairiki, Tarawa
Atoll Republic of Kiribati Phone: 21184 Fax: 21904 Website:
kiribatiembassy.gov.au
Upcoming Public Holidays for the
Australian High Commission
• 23 December
• 26 December
• 27 December
To watch Kiribati AusAid Videos visit:
http://www.youtube.com/user/
AusAIDvideo
