A house of one’s own: turning overseas work into climate-safe housing in Vanuatu

Above: Greg and his wife sharing their story with World Vision Vanuatu staff. Photo: World Vision Vanuatu

Greg Charlie and his family live in the outskirts of Luganville town on Santo Island in Vanuatu, in a neighbourhood called Side River, located along the country’s second largest river, the Sarakata.

Greg, his wife and son lived with his parents in their house for a few years. Living with family comes with lots of benefits including child and financial support, as well as shared responsibilities. However, it is not without its challenges.

It had always been Greg’s dream to build a separate house for his small family of three to live in and call their own.  

“I like living where we are because it is near town, and I could easily purchase materials from the hardware stores. We also used water from the river in the building project to reduce costs,” Greg said. 

“We used to live with my parents in the main house, but I’ve always wanted a separate house for my little family. I knew I had to find a job that can give me enough money to start building, so I joined the RSE* program.” 

Greg joined the Vanuatu Labour Mobility Program to find a better paid job and earn more money. The program sends workers from all around Vanuatu to work on farms and take up other employment opportunities in New Zealand and Australia at a better pay rate than many are able to achieve working in Vanuatu. Workers also develop new skills. Greg worked on a farm in Australia for seven months on a contract basis and travelled back and forth to Vanuatu every few months. 

Above: The house that Greg built after attending the Haos Blong Yumi reintegration workshop. Photo: World Vision Vanuatu

As a returned seasonal worker, Greg participated in a ‘Haos Blong Yumi’ five-day workshop conducted in October 2021 at the Maritime College in Luganville. 

Jointly facilitated by World Vision Vanuatu and supported by the Vanuatu Department of Labour, Haos Blong Yumi reintegration workshops are targeted towards returned labour mobility workers and their spouses. 

The reintegration trainings teach recently returned labour mobility workers how to manage small building projects with savings they have earned overseas. The workshops cover a wide range of topics, such as understanding the scope of a building project, project design, choosing a location, disaster risk management, budgeting and managing finances.   

The Haos Blong Yumi reintegration program complements the World Vision and International Organization for Migration’s Famili I Redi program, a pre-departure workshop for labour migrants and their spouse. Together with World Vision’s one-day Haos Blong Yumi pre-departure short course, the programs encourage overseas workers to start thinking and planning for their house building project well before they depart on their labour mobility journey.  

Between 2021 to 2023, ten Haos Blong Yumi workshops were successfully conducted in Sanma province with a total of 261 participants, including 115 women.  

“The workshop taught us how to organise, scope and plan a housing project with the correct budget. This includes considering the location and disaster risk management side of things when building a house,” Greg said.  

“The biggest benefit I can see for our family is I can now support my wife in managing our family budget, so we can complete building our house.” 

“I have gained a lot of new ideas from the Haos Blong Yumi trainings, and it has made positive changes to my family’s living standard,” Greg said. 

Greg has now accomplished his goal of building a brand-new house for his small family from the things he learned in the workshop. The workshop has also given him ideas about future building projects.  

“I encourage [labour mobility scheme] workers to attend these type of workshops and trainings as it can make a real change to their lives,” he concluded.  

Haos Blong Yumi was supported through the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP) COVID-19 activation, funded by the Australian Government. The program will continue to be implemented in Torba and Sanma provinces under the five-year AHP Disaster READY program.  

*Many labour mobility participants in Vanuatu refer to all Australian and New Zealand labour mobility schemes colloquially as ‘RSE’