Kaotave

...and our rice project is about to restart. Cocoa sales have been providing valuable income for the centre, and poultry and pig farming are yielding good results, too. Other activities include sewing classes and a store on site.

We have 10 full-time staff members (seven male, three female) and can accommodate up to 160 students, male and female students, of all denominations. We have a number of agricultural projects that offer incentives for business enterprises, whilst earning an income for the centre. Students are offered an opportunity to participate in income-generating activities, so they can use their vocational skills in business. We receive additional assistance from Government grants, and the European Union.

The recent civil unrest has influenced our mission at Kaotave, and we aim to assist in the rehabilitation of militants in our area, to serve their communities and help them to become productive citizens. We also aim to train school-leavers in vocational skills and Biblical teaching, and we offer short courses, to extend the same benefits to a wide spectrum of the population.

Kaotave was first established as a SSEC senior primary school, then a Bible Institute (1978). In October 1995, the Kaotave Rice Project was proposed to the Canada Fund by the Regional Director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme, and approved in December of the same year. Kaotave was turned into a Model SSEC vocational training centre with active programmes and projects, and extensive plans for future growth.

During the height of the civil unrest of 2000, Kaotave was vandalized. We lost tools, equipment, water tanks, electrical fittings, sewing machines, typewriters and stoves. The centre was temporarily closed, causing us to fall behind in our payment of rent to landowners. Fortunately we still have a generator for electricity. Our workshops, classrooms, ablution blocks, and 15 staff houses remained in relatively good condition, and every effort has been made to restore them. Money from the sale of poultry goes towards the cost of repairs. Staff members have worked without pay, using what little money they made to feed students. The local Church Association helped where it could.

The centre re-opened in 2001, and we are now doing our best to restore Kaotave and fulfill its great potential. Gardens have been replanted...recent trials with a peanut roaster, to supply peanuts to Honiara, have been successful