Resources: World Day of Prayer

 

Click to download the World Day of Prayer 2021 booklet

 

Theme Build on a Strong Foundation

Country Vanuatu

Artist Juliette Pita

 

Theme

The World Day of Prayer 2021 host country is Vanuatu and the theme is “Build on a Strong Foundation"

Programme prepared by the World Day of Prayer Committee of Vanuatu for WDP 2021

 

Country

Geography and Population

VANUATU BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Republic of Vanuatu was founded on its traditional values, Christian principles, and the people’s faith in God as established in the Constitution of 1980, upon gaining independence on 30^th July 1980. Vanuatu is a beautiful country of many islands and people of many ethnic groups and languages.

LAND AND IDENTITY

Land is very important to the Ni-Vanuatu and a crucial resource for production. Land is thought to be the precondition of human culture; the human inhabitants merge with the earth in some sense. Land is not viewed as a thing to be owned but as vital to the existence of humans and animals in sustaining their livelihood.

THE PEOPLE

The inhabitants of Vanuatu are known as Ni-Vanuatu. Most are of Melanesian descent with a Polynesian minority on the outlying islands. A mix of Europeans, Asians and other Pacific Islanders also live on the archipelago. Studies predict that in 2021 Vanuatu will have 312,000 inhabitants.

Most of the people of Vanuatu live in rural areas. Port Vila is the largest city with 45,000 inhabitants, accounting for 19% of the country's total population.

LANGUAGE

Vanuatu is a small country with more spoken languages than any other place in the world!  It has 113 spoken languages and innumerous dialects. By 2004, less than 100 of these languages remained due to the use of Bislama. Bislama has evolved from broken English, French and the traditional languages. Due to the country’s colonial history, the English and French languages have been adopted as the official language of education.

GEOGRAPHY

Vanuatu is a Y-shaped tropical archipelago located in the South Pacific Ocean with over eighty islands, sixty-five of which are inhabited. The Solomon Islands lie to the north, New Caledonia to the south, Fiji to the east, and the Coral Sea and Australia to the west.

The islands are prone to natural disasters including earthquakes, cyclones and volcanic eruptions. There are seven active volcanoes scattered throughout the islands.

Each year Vanuatu can expect an average of 8 to 10 cyclones. Cyclone Pam, a category 5 tropical cyclone hit the island nation in March 2015. It was one of the worst cyclones on record. Around 75,000 people needed emergency shelter and 96% of the crops were destroyed.  In April 2020 Cyclone Harold another category 5 hit Vanuatu.  The international aid response was severely limited because of COVID 19 quarantine requirements.

RELIGION

Originally, the people of Vanuatu had their own way of worship, and each island had their own area where the dead were supposed to have gone to rest, as well as their own gods

The Vanuatu people did not worship animals or plants but believed there was a creator somewhere in the heavens, and they offered sacrifices to that being.

Missionaries and explorers, like traders and blackbirders, arrived at about the same time in the 19^th century. The islands were distributed among the denominations to bring Christianity to Vanuatu. Missionaries arrived on the southern islands and slowly proceeded north. The Catholic Church went to the south, Presbyterian on Efate, Anglican to the North, and Seventh Day Adventist on Malakula. First the European missionaries arrived and then the Polynesian.

The Presbyterians, which is currently the largest denomination, established their first church in 1852, after the first missionary was martyred upon his arrival in 1838.

Today, Christianity comprises approximately 83% of the total population, while 17% is made up of other religious groups, customary beliefs and cults. Churches present are Presbyterian, Anglican, Roman Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, and Church of Christ. The Vanuatu Christian Council provides a platform for those churches to work together ecumenically across the islands.

DECENTRALIZED GOVERNANCE IN THE VILLAGES

Vanuatu ancestors lived on their own islands, in their own villages, in thatched houses made from leaves and trees hewn with stone axes. Each island and village had their own name and their own systems of governance. They had their own languages, food, styles of clothing, traditional healers and midwives.

Throughout the archipelago, Chiefs were the custodians of the land, language, and heritage, and determined the norms of the societies under their jurisdictions. Men and women came together at the Farea (village meeting house) to debate major issues.

This system of traditional governance was decentralized. The arrival of foreigners, including missionaries, changed that to a more centralized system.

EXPLORERS

In 1606, the first foreign explorer to arrive was a Spaniard named De Quiros. De Quiros arrived on the northern island of Santo and renamed it Australis Del Espiritu Santo.

A Frenchman, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, sailed through the islands in 1768.

In 1774, Captain James Cook came to the islands and named them the New Hebrides, because the islands reminded him of the Hebrides of Scotland.

After these explorers, came the blackbirders and traders of knives, guns, alcohol, tobacco and axes. The term “blackbirding” refers to the large-scale kidnapping of people indigenous to the islands in the Pacific Ocean to work as unpaid or poorly paid labourers in countries distant to their native land. Blackbirding was especially prevalent between 1847 and 1904, when South Pacific islanders were kidnapped, tricked or coerced into working on the cotton and sugar plantations in Queensland, Fiji and Hawaii.

Blackbirders and traders also introduced foreign diseases that killed thousands of people and created havoc in Vanuatu.

THE CONDOMINIUM GOVERNMENT

In 1906, the New Hebrides became a colony ruled jointly by Great Britain and France. The New Hebrides Condominium had a Joint Court but each ran separate administrative bureaucracies, medical systems, police forces, and school systems.

By 1978, the people were calling for independence. In 1979, a government of national unity was formed. Independence was declared on 30^th July 1980, and a parliamentary democracy was installed. Father Walter Lini became the founding Prime Minister, serving until 1991. The country was renamed Vanuatu, which literally means ‘country that stands up’, and a motto was adopted which says “In God we stand.”

ECONOMY

Vanuatu’s economic growth is based on tourism, construction and offshore financial services. Tourism and its related service sectors account for 40% of the Gross Domestic Product and 1/3 of people in formal employment. The government remains the largest employer. Big hotels and resorts are owned by foreigners and these proceeds primarily leave the country. Vanuatu is a tax haven that earns income from company registrations, fees and an offshore shipping registry.

The government introduced the Regional Seasonal Employment scheme in partnership with the governments of Australia and New Zealand. This provides short-term, skill-based employment with a short term visa to labour hire in the areas of agriculture in those countries.

EDUCATION

Christianity changed the social system and the role of men and women, while the Condominium created a double school system - one in English and another in French.

In the first three years of school, children in the towns learn Bislama, while children in the rural areas learn their own local language.

Primary education is not free or compulsory. It is provided by law under three main objectives: access, quality and management.

Secondary education is only available to those who can afford it. Most families can only afford to educate their firstborn child. If the firstborn is a girl, she may be overlooked and educational opportunities are given to the eldest boy.

CHILD HEALTH AND MALNUTRITION

Since Vanuatu ratified the convention on the Rights of a Child in 1992, women’s reproductive and children’s health have been key national priorities of the government. However, Vanuatu failed to achieve its 2015 Millennium Development Goals to reduce maternal and infant mortality.

Vanuatu’s estimated population growth is one of the highest in the Pacific Region. The high fertility rate places a considerable economic burden on people’s livelihoods. Because it is a male dominated society, certain attitudes have an adverse impact on reproductive and child healthcare choices and behaviours.

Malnutrition is a concern in both rural and urban areas. Vanuatu’s traditional diet is high in carbohydrates and low in protein, and the introduction of processed, western foods has aggravated the wellbeing of a child.

Young people between the ages of 12 to 30 make up about a third of Vanuatu’s population.

WATER AND SANITATION

Access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities is a big concern in Vanuatu. The population has poor water sources such as unprotected wells, springs and surface water. The major centres, Port Vila and Luganville, have water infrastructures in the town area. However, on the outer islands secure water systems in villages are in the developmental stage and vulnerable to drought and natural disasters.

Many water sources are far and take 30 minutes to an hour to reach. Sanitation facilities still need a lot of improvements to help combat health issues.

WOMEN

In the past 20 years, there have been changes for women in Vanuatu. The gender gap in literacy and education has narrowed. In some provinces, girls outperformed boys in school attendance.

Since independence in 1980, five women have been elected to the National Parliament.

Women represent 40% of the labour force in both public and private sectors compared to 60% of men. Women are usually full time homemakers caring for children, the elderly, people with disabilities and other family members.

Gender-based violence is a serious issue affecting women and girls. Approximately 60% of women in Vanuatu have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence in their lives, of which 21% were left with permanent injuries. The Family Protection Act is the legal framework that protects and supports women in cases of domestic violence.

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER

World Day of Prayer was introduced by Canadian missionaries, Mrs. Amy Skinner and Mrs. Catherine Ritchie and the first service was reportedly held on March 8 1946.

On the invitation of the Presbyterians, Anglicans and Catholics joined in 1981. Women from Apostolic and Church of Christ congregations remember joining together as young women in the 1980s on the islands of Ambae and Pentecost. In later years, other women from different churches across the islands joined World Day of Prayer.

With the creation of the Women’s Desk of the Vanuatu Christian Council, in the early 2000s, collaborations with WDP groups already in existence were developed.

The Vanuatu Committee’s prayer is that the ecumenical relationship they experienced during the blessing of working together for the 2021 programme will lift up the voice of Vanuatu woman across the world.

The Committee wishes to develop initiatives to assist young, rural women by creating employment and educational opportunities. They also wish to help with health programmes focusing on maternal concerns, children’s health and cancer.

Artist/Artwork

The painter Juliette Pita - Written by Katja Buck

Juliette Pita is currently the most well-known artist in Vanuatu. She was born in 1964 on Erromango Island and is the third of eight children. She is a widow with three children and her adopted niece.

Her talent was discovered early on. At school she was always the best in art classes. As a child she went to boarding school in Tanna because there was no school on Erromango. Later on, she moved to Efaté to attend Lycee. Her parents could not afford to pay tuition so a family friend offered to pay her fees and take her in. She was the first woman to graduate from the Institut National de Technologie du Vanuatu (INTV). Juliette never imagined making money from her art but she believed God had plans for her. She gives all the money she earns to anyone who needs help.

With the independence of Vanuatu in 1980, she felt that she had to show with her work that she and the people of Vanuatu were mature enough to be independent. In 1994, she had her first exhibition in Paris, and then later she had exhibitions in Sydney, New Caledonia, and across Europe.

Her motifs are taken from the traditional culture of Vanuatu, but also from her current life. She works part-time as a fabric painter for sarongs that tourists can buy in the city centre. She also sells her paintings to tourists in Port Vila who come on cruise ships. Her children and nieces and nephews are also artists and sell paintings to pay their school fees.

Description of the Painting

The painting titled “Cyclone Pam II: 13^th of March, 2015” shows a mother bending and praying over her child. The waves crash over her but a palm tree bends protectively over them. The palm tree is Juliette’s favorite tree with strong roots able to withstand strong winds. The woman's skirt is modeled after the traditional clothing on Erromango. On the horizon you can see small crosses representing the lives taken by cyclone Pam in 2015.

During the cyclone, Juliette and neighbours took refuge in a container. Pam had moved to Vanuatu overnight and people could not see anything - they could only pray. In the morning they climbed out of the container to see that almost everything was destroyed. There was a hut behind Juliette’s studio, built traditionally using palm trees, and it withstood the cyclone with big trees above it deflecting the wind. Juliette believes God heard their prayers and that nature protected them that night.