Vanuatu's Market Mamas Forced To Move After December Earthquake
Article – RNZ
Fresh produce seller Leidab David said when the earthquake struck they were at the national market in town and they all ran. Grace Tinetali-Fiavaai, RNZ Pacific Journalist
Port Vila's 'mamas' had to adapt to feed their communities after being displaced by the 7.3 magnitude earthquake which damaged the city's main market house in the centre of town.
At the Port Vila Show Ground Market, groups of women sold their produce under a marquee-style tarpaulin shelter set up beside a permanent concrete verandah.
Those operating under the temporary shelters once sold their wares at the Central Market House in downtown Port Vila before it was damaged in the quake.
The earthquake killed 14 and injured more than 250. The NDMO said 80,000 people were effected and 1473 displaced from their homes.
Fresh produce seller Leidab David said when the earthquake struck they were at the national market in town and they all ran.
'We did not know where to go to do our market,' she said.
'After some days, weeks and months had passed now we have come together again. We have found ourselves here in the market house at Seaside.'
Each mama pays a table fee to the Port Vila Municipal Council to sell their goods.
Under the marquee there are approximately 16 to 20 tables – about 8 to 10 on each side.
Those on the concrete verandah are largely vendors who had already been based at the Show Ground Market.
'Now the public and vendors know that the mamas that used to market in town, which is damaged – they are all coming to this place,' David said.
'Now we are starting to sell and now the room, the place is small.'
David said the manager has told them that if they come and it is full, sellers can go to Fres Wota Park and to Anamburu Park.
For two older mamas, Susan Esau (63) and Elsie Solo (72), selling their produce daily earns them up to 20,000 vatu (US$165.48) a week.
Solo, who sells coconuts, said she has seven people in her family to feed while Easu, who sells fruit, said she has six mouths to feed.
'Yes, it is enough' they say to help provide and put food on the table for their family.
The Show Ground Market is now one of the few satellite markets with access to toilets and running water, an essential service for vendors who spend long days at their stalls.
Leidab David said they need a better venue.
'We need a big building; we need a safe place for all of us to come to and be safe,' she said.
'We want a good one like at the national market. Right now we are just doing things individually. We need a big space for us vendors to come to and be safe.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
What does the government consider a couple, anyway?
RNZ's money correspondent Susan Edmunds answers your questions. Photo: RNZ Send your questions to How is a couple relationship determined? If two people are in a relationship but physically and financially remain independent can they remain as solo rather than as a couple? I've had lots of questions over the years about how government departments define a relationship. It can be quite tricky. From what I've seen, sometimes people who don't necessarily think of themselves as being a couple can sometimes be classified as one if they seek help from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), or other agencies. MSD says people who are married, in a civil union or de facto are counted as in a relationship. There are few things that contribute to being considered "de facto". They include being emotionally committed to each other, financially interdependent, sharing responsibilities, holidaying and socialising together, sharing bills, having a sexual relationship, supporting each other and other people thinking of them as a couple. Even if you don't live together, you could be captured, if you're apart for health reasons, financial reasons or work reasons, or because one of you needs rest home care. If you're determined to be in a relationship, the government expects you to be willing to financially support each other. My partner and I have a contracting out relationship property agreement and for practical reasons share only our living costs. In that situation, if one of us is in need of care, does the government still include both sets of assets and money? If the answer is 'yes', surely this is yet another example of how making one's own arrangements and plans again is undermined by the state for older people. In our situation it is actually not an issue in reality, but I can imagine how it might be for many others. And related to that, relationship property rules don't really kick in until a three year or so mark. Again, is that how MSD define a relationship? There is not a relationship duration test, and your contracting out agreement will not make a difference unless you have actually separated and are no longer a couple. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Wave of house fires overnight
A close-up of the Fire and Emergency NZ logo. Photo: Marika Khabazi / RNZ Three people have been taken to hospital after a fire broke out at a home in St Clair, Dunedin, overnight. Fire and Emergency was called to Allandale Road just before 3am on Saturday. When teams arrived the house was fully alight, with 26 crew and eight trucks fighting the fire at its peak. They remain at the scene. The three people taken to hospital had minor injuries. Crews were also at the scene of a house fire in Mahora, Hastings, overnight. Fire and Emergency was called to that blaze just before 2am, crews from Napier also attending. One person was treated for an injury at the scene and an investigator will head there later on Saturday. An investigator will also be heading to the scene of a house fire in Levin. Fire and Emergency was alerted to the blaze at 4.15am. It was now out and there were no reports of injuries. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Schools not ready to grade reports against new curriculums
By John Gerritsen of RNZ Some primary schools warn they are not ready to grade children against the new English and maths curriculums in mid-year reports to parents. The curriculums were introduced this year and the Education Ministry has proposed a new four-point scale to standardise the way schools describe children's achievement. It suggested four descriptors: needs support, progressing towards, proficient, and excelling. "Needs support" would apply to children who were not meeting the level of achievement expected of their year group and needed significant guidance and assistance, Pupils who were "progressing towards" could complete tasks with some guidance and needed targeted support while those who were "proficient" would be meeting expectations for their year level. The draft said "exceeding" could apply to students who consistently showed advanced understanding, knowledge and skills for their year level. The ministry told schools they could use the descriptors if they wanted to, but there was no requirement to do so this year. Testing several years ago suggested the new maths curriculum would be more challenging, but the children who sat those tests had not been taught the curriculum. Principals spoken to by RNZ were reluctant to say children who met curriculum expectations last year might not meet expectations under the new curriculum this year. Auckland Primary Principals Association president Lucy Naylor said families should regard the mid-year reports as setting a new baseline for their children's achievement against the new curriculum. "We're no longer reporting against the old curriculum. So there might be a shift for parents, it's a new curriculum, it's a tighter curriculum," she said. "What parents might see is variation. So where a child might have been proficient against the old curriculum there might be a little bit of a change to that because we have more indicators within the new curriculum to report against." However, Naylor said this year was a transition year for introducing the new curriculums and schools would be at different stages of readiness to report on children's progress. Dunedin North Intermediate principal Heidi Hayward said it was too early to know if fewer children were meeting the new maths requirements. "Schools are really just scratching the surface in understanding the new maths curriculum so I think it's imprudent to try and report against a curriculum that schools have actually not had enough time to learn and use properly," she said. "We'll be taking a very cautious approach to reporting." Hayward said teachers would rely heavily on test results this year, but needed to use their overall judgement when deciding how well their pupils' were doing. She said reports should ideally show parents how well children were achieving against expectations for their age group, and how much progress they had made. "As a parent what I really want to know is has my child made progress and where do they sit in relation to the expectation for age and they're two quite different things," she said. She said it was important to know whether high-achievers had improved or progressed much during the year, and also whether pupils performing below expectations had made progress in catching up to their peers. Hayward said the ministry's proposed descriptors would not provide that information and her school would this year use its old reporting templates. The principal of Douglas Park School in Masterton, Gareth Sinton, said his school's mid-year reports would not use the ministry's proposed terminology because there was not enough detail to help schools decide which of the four descriptors to use. "If I pick Year 6 writing, there are 53 what they call sequence statements, so 53 skills that the kids are expected to be taught and pick up across their Year 6 year in writing. So to be proficient it says you need to be meeting the expectations. It doesn't say if you need to have all of those, all 53. If you need to have 90 percent of those, 80 percent of those, 75 percent... So the descriptor is so vague that we don't feel confident enough yet to make a judgement against this new curriculum," he said. Sinton said greater national consistency was possible, but currently different schools had different ideas about where the cut-off points lay for each level of achievement. For example, one of his staff was talking with staff from five other schools about the curriculum expectations and all five had different ideas about where the cut-off points should be drawn. "All five schools had different thoughts. So if you translate that across the whole system of 2000 primary schools, there's an issue and it's not even an issue on the horizon, it's an issue right here in front of us," he said. Sinton said his teachers would explain to parents in mid-year reports what their children could do in maths and English, but would not make an overall judgement about their performance. The Education Ministry said the new curriculums had a different approach to learning and school leaders and teachers had asked for clarity on how they should assess and report student progress and achievement against the new curriculum. "Progress descriptors provide consistent language for how each child's progress is tracking against the new curriculum expectations. The descriptors are in draft and we're consulting on these until 30 June," it said. "National consistency in how progress is assessed and described will support teachers to meet students' needs and support a common understanding of when additional support or extension needs to be considered. It will also support continuity in teaching, learning and support as students move to the next year level or school." The ministry said national consistency would ensure parents would not have to interpret different approaches for describing how their children were doing as they moved to the next year level or school.
