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Professional aid agencies donate 'banana boats' with outboard engines to help islanders get to market to sell their produce or to hospital for medical emergencies and pregnancies. All too often we saw these boats holed from being dragged over coral or with outboards that didn't work for some reason, often because there was no money for petrol. Eric Gray from SY 'Erica' thought of a way of salvaging these boats that were lying unused on the beaches, as well as teaching the islanders how to carry out maintenance and learn how to use fibre-glass, which they can obtain on the mainland. He had the idea to build a schooner rigged boat from two banana boats, putting the hulls stern to stern, widening them and building covered accommodation at the same time as teaching the islanders how to use these techniques themselves.
The benefits from the project's success over August and September 2008 are several:
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Provide more reliable and efficient transport
- Utilize otherwise wasted hulls of banana boats
- Provide more comfort when transporting the sick and pregnant to hospital
- Create more dry space for taking goods to market
- Overcome lack of funds for petrol for the outboards
- Overcome lack of repairs on engines
- Teach islanders fibre-glassing skills so they can start their own industry
for other islands to use.
- Help islanders to be less dependent on handouts and be more self sufficient.
Eric found one village on Gigila Island which showed real enthusiasm for the project and it is to this village we shall return in 2008. Two men are particularly keen to learn more skills and the whole community is enthusiastically behind the project. For more details see Banana Boat Project.
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