Aims and Objectives

1. To teach twenty-five women to sew, with some to become teachers for future sewing courses to be run by the AMAK Women’s Centre.
2. To set up a permanent sewing workshop where sewing courses will be held, and local women will be able to come and sew for themselves under the supervision of teachers.
3. To train a number of men or women to become proficient at servicing and repairing sewing machines.
4. Establish a small production sewing workshop to make school uniforms and other clothes and generate a small income for AMAK.

Team:

Teachers: Rhonda Whitton, Vera Liondas, Jenny Eggleston, Fay Kitto, Jennie Beeston

Admin and Management: Tony Castley, Paula Vincent, Erimeta Barko ( Kiriabti)

Mechanical Training: Mario Azarpadi, Zac Vincent.

Getting there:

The team flew out of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on Sunday, 7th April 2024, overnight in Fiji, and onto Tarawa( Kiribati) on Monday, 8th. We were met at the Tarawa Bonriki airport by David O’Toole and his wife Julie, who were Australian volunteers working with AMAK. Tarawa is the main island of the Kiribati group, with 65% of the 110,00 total population crowed in South Tarawa. We went through to Fema Lodge, where we were staying, and then back to AMAK.

AMAK Celebrations

The AMAK Women’s Centre had recently been substantially renovated and funded by the Australian Government. On a Monday afternoon, under a specially erected marque, we joined in the “ handing over “ ceremony. There were about 50 people in attendance, including the Australian High Commission Karen Bray and the Kiribati First Lady . The festivities included a number of speeches followed by local dancing.

SewAid  set-up:

After the celebrations, at about 4 pm the Sewaid team began setting up. We had shipped the following goods in a container, which was only delivered to AMAK on Friday, after sitting on the Kiribati wharf for 12 weeks, held up by paperwork!

13 large tables, 30 stackable chairs, 15 new sewing machines, 5 new overlockers, 20 second-hand sewing machines, 5 second-hand overlockers, a new high-speed Singer industrial sewing machine and bench, a high-speed Singer industrial overlocker and bench, 160 rolls of fabric and very large amount of haberdashery and sewing accessories.

Accommodation and Eating :

At the Fema lodge, we had 8 rooms, with Zac and his mum Paula sharing a room. The rooms were run down, with mould on the walls, etc., but the essentials were there: hot showers, a good bed, and an air conditioner and toilet that both worked. At  $117 – $134 a night per room, it was expensive for the condition of the rooms. Ketrina, a young lady that ran the office, told us she works 14 hours a day (7am -9pm) six days a week and is paid $2,00 an hour !!  So, they don’t have much of a labour cost!  We had dinner at the Fema restaurant the first night, and the food was not great, so for most nights following, we went to the Utirerei hotel nearby, where the food was much better, and the staff really looked after us. For lunch each day, we went to the Chatterbox café, which is the only Western-type café in Kiribati, and it was conveniently close to AMAK. Paula ordered and arranged all the lunches and dinners each day.

Getting around:

We hired two cars: a Subaru SUV for $90 a day and a medium-sized late-model Nissan car for $70 per day.  We had a small accident the first night, which cost us $350 for the damage, but otherwise, we had no further problems with the cars. Paula and Mario did most of the driving. There is only one road that runs the 35km length of the island; the speed limit is 40kph, but most of the traffic moves at about 20-30kph, so travelling between Fema Lodge and AMAK takes about 30-45 minutes each way.  There is one section of the road where there is a sign, saying highest point in Tarawa – 3 meters !!   Petrol was $1.20 ltr.

Sewing Teaching Program

On Tuesday morning, there was another ceremony, this time to welcome SewAid, more dancing and food, and we also celebrated Zac’s 17^th Birthday. Finally got started on the teaching Tuesday afternoon.  There were three beginner classes of five students, ladies who hadn’t sewn before, and two advanced classes of five, ladies who could already sew. The beginner classes were taken by Jennie B, Fay, and Vera, and the advanced classes by Jenni E., and Rhonda.

The teaching progressed every day for the next 8 days, including Saturday morning, finishing up with a big party on Wednesday 17th; a very large number of bags, dresses, shirts and craft items were made- see the photos, and the teachers were all happy with the progress the students made. Thank you, teachers, you did a wonderful job!

One afternoon, Mario and I conducted a servicing lesson, during which the students were taught to service the sewing machines and the overlockers. Knowing how to service the machines and understanding the importance of servicing is so important in third-world countries. In Kiribati, there are hundreds of sewing machines that are rusted and unusable because of the lack of service.

The main sewing teaching program ended on Wednesday and concluded with a party and a ceremony where all the sewing classes put on a small song and dance for their teachers. Then we gave out the certificates to all the students and presented Erimeta with a beautiful quilt kindly donated by Vera, followed by a raffle of a second quilt and other prizes.  Six of our team left for home the next morning while three of our team, Rhonda, Vera, and Fay, stayed on until the following Monday to train the teachers in teaching methods and techniques and set up the ongoing sewing courses for AMAK.

Embroidery machine:

We carried an Elna Air Artist embroidery machine on the plane, and many thanks to Rhonda, who taught two local ladies how to use this quite complex machine. It will be a great asset to the sewing room.

Mechanical Training

Mario set up his training in the other building, and he and Zac taught a team of 10 men and women how to service and repair sewing machines. They serviced and repaired the 25 second-hand machines, assembled the industrial machines, and also made a service call to the RAK and RAB sewing workshops, where they successfully repaired some of their machines. Mario was amazed at how interested his students were and how quickly they learnt. Several could competently repair mechanical sewing machines at the end of the course, and I believe this will be the first time that sewing machines can be repaired in Kiribati. Thank you, Mario; we have never had a sewing machine mechanic in our team before, but having you with us this time was a huge success.

Admin team:

I was very ably supported by Paula and Zac, who quietly took care of the many jobs that needed to be done each day.  Paula organised all the meals, the water, and anything we needed, as well as organising all the paperwork and the certificates.   Zac, in addition to helping Mario, unpacked and sorted out all the container goods, assembled the wall stands, and he and Paula sorted out all the fabrics. This room became known as the fabric shop!  Thank you, Paula and Zac, for all your assistance.

Public relations:

The local TV station came and did some filming, and we were able to see part of this on the news when we visited the George Hotel in Betio (the top end of the island ) on Sunday. We also have the film on a USB.

We were also invited to a reception at the Australian High Commission (HC)), which is a modern, impressive building in Biriki (area of all embassies, etc.). A large amount of finger food was turned on, and we had the opportunity to ask High Commissioner Karen and assistant Brenden a lot of questions about their work. Some interesting details: The annual cost of the Australian program is $44 mil, and the number of staff is 5 Australians and 30 locals. Staff salaries range from $75,00pa to $16,000pa for a driver, and their work is heavily focused on global warming, gender equality and Australia maintaining a strong relationship with the Kiribati government and its people. Group photos were taken and later posted on the Embassy website.

Rotary:

The small Rotary club of Kiribati was to have a meeting on the Wednesday night, however this was postponed until the Friday night, so as to included District Governor Vineeta Nand who flew in Thursday from New Zealand. Rotarians Rhonda, Vera, and Fay attended the meeting. DG Vinetta inspected the Sewaid program and was most impressed and wrote up an article for one of the Rotary websites.

Conclusions and Thanks:

I visited Kiribati back in 2019 when I met Mrs Erimeta Baraka, the manager of the AMAK Women’s Community Centre, who asked me if I could help her establish a sewing program. Then COVID got in the way, and so it was 4 years later that we finally got to put this together.  Prior to the actual trip, some twelve months of planning and organising went into preparing for the program. Many thanks to Rotary Donations-in-Kind in Melbourne for all their assistance in getting the container of goods shipped to Kiribati in November 2023. Many thanks to our donors and suppliers, including Sewgroup International, Hobbysew Australia, Janome and Singer sewing machines, Simplicity patterns, Rotary Down Under and others. To get these trips up and running, I rely on the great assistants of the Hobbysew staff, including Tracey, Eve, Donna, Analise and Chris- and a very big thank you for all that you prepared for this program, including the Polo shirt embroidery, the team profile and certificates etc.

It really took a huge amount of work to put the team and the program together, and Erimeta and I had hundreds of emails over many months to work out the details. At the airport when Erimeta came to see us off, she said “we did it “ to which I replied “yes we did it “ Many many thanks to Erimeta – a beautiful lady who worked so hard to make this happen.

But the Sewaid team program would never exist without our wonderful volunteers- our teachers and other members of the team. Not only do they donate their time and skills, but they also pay their own airfares, which this time were $2,000 each !   A huge thank you to Rhonda, Vera, Fay, Jenni E, and Jennie B.; you were all wonderful teachers.  Thank you to the Kiribati team, you were a fantastic team, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Women in Kiribati have learnt new skills and more will continue to learn because of your efforts.

Please see the photos when reading this report.  Click on the photos to enlarge.

Regards

Tony Castley, SewAid Manager.

However we have stayed in touch with our projects and this month we were able to finally despatch some shipments to them.

Sustainable Cambodia:

Our original shipment which was loaded into the REECH container more than a year ago, never left Sydney due to the inability to obtain  duty free importation into Cambodia.  Jenny Knight of REECH has been working tirelessly on this problem for over a year and has finally found a new agent in Cambodia who can make it happen,

So we had an opportunity to add some extra roles of PUL fabric for Days for Girls kits and finally this container has been shipped. I can barely remember what the original shipment was, although I know it was enough fabric and other parts, to make over 3,600 Days for Girls Kits.- and I recall Ryde Rotary kindly contributed  $620.00  worth of flannelette  to that original shipment. This time Sewaid added another  $900 worth of PUL.

So SC should be very well stocked for DFG kit making when this shipment arrives. Thanks again to Jenny Knight for shipping this for us.

Kiribati 

Again our proposed shipment to our project in Kiribati was delayed dues to DIK ( Donations in Kind ) Melbourne being closed through the COVID period.

However through Wendy Flahive we learned of a United Church container that was going and we were able to ship a pallet of sewing machines  down to catch this container.  Of the 29 new sewing machines shipped, 10 were purchased by Kindling Association – a Kiribati micro loans organisation and another 11 were donated by two CWA divisions.

The remaining  8 new sewing machines were donated by SewAid, these being just the start of our project to develop a new sewing training centre at the AMAK women’s Centre in Kiriabti. We hope to ship off another pallet of machines along with everything for the new sewing room  with DIK Melbourne soon.

We are very grateful to Ruth Cross of the Rotary club of Tarawa (Kiribati) who will organise the receipt and distribution of these machines.

So while we still can’t visit any of our projects, it is rewarding to be able to get some shipments away to them.

Tony Castley

Pallet for 29 new sewing machines being shipped to Kiribati

Attention Sewaid teachers, and our Kiribati organisers.

We have postponed the Kiribati programme from May until July. Proposed dates are now July 22^nd to August  6^th. Kiribati have their independence celebrations the first two weeks of July, and that is why we have chosen the 22^nd of  July to start.

The reasons for this postponement are two-fold. One, shipping of our machines and equipment was to be March 3^rd, arriving April 15^th. This meant the shipment only arrived two weeks before the team. History has taught us this is not enough leeway as shipping times often get extended or there can be  wharf delays and suchlike. We are now planning to ship around 2^nd week April which will arrive end of May, thus giving us an 8 weeks leeway. This will also give us more time to prepare the shipment.

The second reason is that with the Corona virus at present, it might be prudent to hold off until we can see how this settles.

Thank you everyone for accepting this change of plans.

Regards Tony

 Sewaid Team opportunities  East Timor and Kiribati

Dear Ladies,

We have a few vacant positions for our upcoming teams to East Timor and Kiribati. If you have any interest to join one of these teams, please give me a call or reply via email.

Also if you no longer want to be on our data base, please advise.

East Timor,  November 17th-30th, 2019

We are planning a sewing training program in Dili, the capital of East Timor in late November.

We will be teaching ladies selected from these areas and NGO leaders:

Oecusse : organised by Judy Charnaud -Rotary E-Club of Greater Sydney )

Soibada  : organised by Tamara Sloper-Harding -Rotary Club of Northern Beaches ,Sydney

Dili: organised by Libby Bleakley – Rotary Club of BlackHeath, NSW

Vinqueque: organised by Mira Fonseca of Dili.

Hera : organised by Mira Fonseca of Dili

The project will also by in conjunction with the Rotary club of Dili

The students will be taught in  5 different classes , Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Craft. For a better understanding of our program, please check our website  for the photos and report from our most recent program on Solomon Islands

The cost will be capped at $2,500.  Airfares and accommodation are expensive for East Timor and Sewaid with cover all cost exceeding $2,500 per teacher. All the sewing machines, fabrics and accessories will be shipped to East Timor by Sewaid to arrive there in October.

This program will not only be of great benefit to the students ( who will all come form very poor arears) but as always I am sure it will be very satisfying, lots of fun and an experience of a lifetime.

Kiribati  March 2020

Following a survey visit I made in April to Kirabati , we have promised to run a Sewaid training course in or around March next year. The exact dates are not set as yet, but should be confirmed shortly.

Kiribati is a small set of islands 3 hours by plane from Fiji. It is a very poor nation of 110,000 people, but they are also some of the most friendly and delightful people to work with.

The program will be supervised by the South Tarawa Rotary Corps , in conjunction with several other church and government groups. It will be over 2 weeks with the middle Saturday and Sunday spent a resort. Unfortunately airfares to Kirabati are very expensive, and so the cost is capped at $2,500 and Sewaid will pay everything exceeding that cost.

Our teaching program will again be much the same as Solomon Islands and our other recent programs. Sewaid will ship all the machines, fabrics and accessories over to Kirabati beforehand.

And again,  this  program will not only be of great benefit to the students ( who will all come from very poor homes) but as always I am sure it will be very satisfying, lots of fun and an experience of a lifetime.

Regards

Tony Castley

Sewaid.

0414801888

tonyc@sewgroup.com

www.sewaid.com

photo: Sewaid Team to Solomon Islands February 2019 

I was invited to join DG Ingrid Waugh ,PDG Jenny Herring D9920 and PDG Simon Manning D9940 on their trip to Kirabati , where they planned to charter the Rotary Community Corp of Kirabati (RRC)  , and commenced work into forming a new Rotary club on the Island of Tarawa.

Kirabati is a country of many small island situated in the central pacific up near the equator. It is reached by air 3 hours North/East  from Fiji. There are 110,000 inhabitants , the majority of them living on the main island of Tarawa.  Tarawa itself is a collection of small islands connected by causeways and forming a V.  The width of the land varies from 500m max to 10m causeways. There is one road running from one tip of the V to the other  – about 60kms. The highest point on the Island is 3m.  It is a modern living society, but with a very large number of the families living in little more than a few sheets of corrugated iron and some canvas. Churches play a major role in the community with most everyone belonging to one church group or another. Catholics are the largest group, but the LDS ( Mormon) church has the largest and most modern churches, schools and other facilities. I believe the existence of the country is almost entirely dependent on foreign aid, and additionally the rising sea level is such that the UN has said that all inhabitants will have to be evacuated by 2050. There is an Australian High Commissioner ( Bruce Cowled ) whom I visited , and an NZ high Commissioner. The currency is the Australian Dollar, Electrical fittings are all Australia style.

Sewaid has for several years received requests for assistance in Kirabati for church groups, and my aim was to investigate the possibilities of conducting a Sewaid training program here sometime in the future.

We stayed at the Utirerie Motel, in the suburb of Ambro, about midway along the South Tarawa peninsula  where the rooms were quite comfortable with air-conditioning and hot water showers, and a nice balcony deck restaurant. I was also able to hire a car here for $65 per day. The restaurant also handled my Gluten Free diet without any trouble. info@utireriemotel.com  Simon is the office manager. Phone 68622530/21168

Our visit was managed and assisted by Kairao ( Cairo) Ribauea Tune, who is the President of the new RRC, a dedicated member of the LDS church and a lady with 9 children and enormous energy. Kairao spoke perfect English and assisted us with anything we needed which was much appreciated.  Her husband a quiet man is a fisherman. tunerkairao@gmail.com phone 73066435.

I visited and talked with the following groups.

KUC  Kirabati United Church of Bairriki . My contact was Matirita ???  known as “Nee Ma” . Matirita was the first president of the former Rotary club which ran 4 years 2012 to 2016.  This group would like us to conduct a sewing program for them however currently they do not have any suitable building to house a Sewaid program. I also called into her home one day and fixed her old Singer hand machine. Matirita63@gmail.com  mobile 7309346 .

KUC Kirabati United Church of Batio.  The contact here is  Mr. Tetibwebwe , and they had previously sent me completed Sewaid application form. I drove up to Batio – which is the last point on the South arm, and met with Mr. Tetibwebwe and inspected their premises . They have a small room, but not big enough for say more than two teachers and 8 students.  The St George motel next door was OK but messy. $120 a night  for a large room which would house 2 teachers comfortably.  They also have a room full of industrial machines,  most all not going.  csmanager@pub.com.ki  mobile 73040725

KPC Kirabati Presbyterian Church. I visited their RAK sewing room. It has been in the past I believe a well organised garment workshop, however I found it had no overlocker working and the qty and quality for the output appeared to be very low. I will try and get a needle for their over-locker.

AMARK Womens’ Centre.  This in a non denomination centre, open to all. They have 3 very large room, ideally suited for a Sewaid. They ran a sewing training course for 30 women last November, when the students brought their own machines.. The co-ordinator is a Mrs Erimeta Barako a very nice lady. I tried to fix 3 of their machines, but only succeeded in fixing one. They have very little sewing equipment.  Email amakgeneral@gmail.com. Phone 686 73047321.

Summary and going forward:

I think it could be possible to do a Sewaid training course there later on, and I think it would be most beneficial.  I mentioned that March 2020 might be a suitable time, but we would need to check what teachers would like to go on this one. Costs is a problem, as airfares are about $2,000 via Fiji, but might be a bit less via Solomon Islands. Accommodation would be approximately another $1,000 or so.  KUC Batio offered to pay our accommodation and meals, but I think this was a bit easily offered and the accommodation in that offer was in the  church buildings which was unsuitable.  The Australian High Commission may sponsor us a little, or we could apply for a grant. One of the big costs would also be the sea freight for the machines and equipment. I need to look into this.

I believe it would be best and fairest to run the Sewaid at the AMAK centre. They have the room and they would supply lunch. Then we could offer to take say two students from each of the other organisation requesting our help. The AMARK centre itself could not offer much on-the-ground  support,  however the RCC may take us on as project,  I will continue to process this.

Tony Castley 19/04/2019

Feature Image – Main road in Tarawa – 40 kph

Photos below – click to enlarge

1) Ladies at the RAK ctr pleased to receive a Gosford Nth Inner Wheel sewing kits.   2) Matirita pleased to received some Days for Girls Kits.   3) Jenny and Ingrid very happy with their personalised tops they were given.  4) Ladies at the AMARK centre very pleased with their sewing kits .