Through August and September and into October, the Volley4Change program, led by its northern-based senior development officer Stanley Toa, has worked non-stop to take the program to some of the more remote villages and communities in the SANMA Province.
Starting with a 2-week expedition which covered visits to the communities of Pesena, Malao, Matantas, Valpe, Olboi, Nokuku and Wusi, Volley4Change development officer Toa joined the cohort as part of delivering capacity building training and support, especially for several Joint Area Games planned for various communities across the months ahead.
SANMA PTAG team (Provincial Technical Advisory Group) gathered for a Sport and Policy Consultation review in SANMA Province, with the Vanuatu National Sports Commission (VNSC) team, up from Port Vila, delivering the training for the group.
Staff from the Vanuatu Ministry of Youth and Sport were also involved, delivering the same training the following day, to members of the SANMA Sports Committee and Stanley for V4C.
The SANMA Sports Committee then followed up with a meeting with the whole team from Port Vila for consultation talks about the Youth and Sports Policy, looking to review the document for the next 5 years, following on from the most recent 2019 â 2024 policy.
Once all the official policy work was done, everyone headed to Colu Village i
n East Coast Santo for the local Joint Area Council Games.
Delivering a sporting event is hard work, whether itâs on a local, provincial or even national basis. So, the pre-Games efforts for volleyball involved preparation of the courts in the days leading up to competition. But even more crucial was the 2-days of training, delivered by Toa, to 17 of the locals around coaching, team management and sport competition. There was also an all-important Safeguarding session delivered to all training workshop participants.
As part of the sessions, Stanley got the participants to prepare a modified sports program within their groups, before delivering to the wider group, and with coaches coming from different sports such as football as well as volleyball participating, the outcomes were innovative and interesting with some key learnings for all â building real capacity for their community coaching careers.
All 17 participants proudly received certificates on completion of the training course, presented by the SANMA Sports Committee, with assistance from representatives of the provincial government.
A couple of weeks later and Stanley was again heading to regional SANMA communities, joined by VVF/V4C staff from Port Vila â Stivano Banga and Terry Newman â going to Nambahuk Village where the Joint Area Games for these communities were ready to get underway, as well as the opportunity for more capacity building with the locals.
It doesnât end there though, with more on the calendar to round out the year, with a visit to North West Santo, joining the SANMA Sports Committee, kicking off the V4C November agenda, for more program, workshop and training delivery, and of course to support more local village communities in their sports events.
These community visits by Volley4Change are an important part of not only promoting volleyball in all Vanuatu communities, but to underline the importance of the programâs key messages around gender equality and empowerment, good health and wellbeing through physical activity and nutrition as well as inclusion within communities.
