Two teams of keen Kiwi volunteers are heading to Vanuatu this July to build a classroom that will double as a cyclone evacuation centre.

It's been a long time since organisation Volunteer Build has been able to build in countries needing homes or schools, says Tauranga resident and VB founder Diana Judge.

'This is the first time since 2019 that we're doing a build,” says Diane, who is ready to finally get busy and help out again.

'It's fantastic…the need never went away during lockdown, in fact the need actually increased for a lot of countries during Covid-19.”

Growing build

More than 40 volunteers from Tauranga, Wellington, Auckland and other NZ towns will head to Vanuatu from July 8-15, building a double classroom for the V2 Life School near Port Vila.

'Originally, we were just going to build a teachers' house there but the school has grown so much since 2019. It's grown from 40 students to a 110 students, so they've run out of classroom space.”

Volunteer Build teams getting to work, building a double classroom on Pele Island, Vanuatu in 2018. Photo: Supplied.

Leading the build, Diana will also be taking two NZ building foremen to Vanuatu to guide the two volunteer teams.

'They [volunteers] don't need to have any experience because we teach them everything.”

The volunteers will be seeing a lot of block and steel during their efforts. 'In the Pacific we only build in concreted block with reinforced steel – and we do that to cyclone-proof them because there's some buildings which can be made out of tin, or timber, and they may not necessarily have the same cyclone-proofing that a concrete block one will.”

Done in 10

The double classroom build will be 16 metres by eight metres and take 10 days to complete, says Diana. With the concrete slab floor already laid down in January, the first few days of the build will involve putting down 12 layers of blocks.

'On the fourth day all the trusses that we've built will be put up, and we'll put the purlins on and then on the fifth day we'll put on iron.”

Then it's the task of roof screws – and a lot of them!

'The whole double classroom will have 2000 cyclone assembly roof screws. Each team will screw in 1000 each,” says Diana.

'We source all the materials locally and stay locally, so it's providing employment for locals and putting money into the economy….what we want to do is, respond to community need and do that in such a way that our donor funds are maximised and the end result is the most robust that we can get.”

Diana says volunteers get a lot out of helping the build projects.

'Giving is an incredible thing. It's underrated!

"It's really cool, as well as building homes, and building schools, you're building lives both with the people that go with you and also those who are in the host country.”

There are still a few more spots left for the Port Vila project in July. For more information and to register, visit: https://www.volunteerbuild.com/