Kapiti volunteers build Samoan preschool

BY MARGARET IRVINE

The children of Lepuia'i, an island village in Samoa, now have a new preschool, thanks to the efforts of a team led by Kapiti Coasters.

School began in mid-February with a special ceremony involving the pre-schoolers, their families, the elders of the village and the Kiwi building team who made it possible.

Richard Khouzame, of Waikanae, had been fundraising for the new pre-school since he visited the Samoan island of Manono in the days following the September 30 tsunami, which caused immense damage to the country. The former preschool had been wiped out, leaving only a broken wall and a damaged water tank as a reminder of what had stood there.

By January 25 this year Mr Khouzame had raised more than $20,000, with more to come from an art auction and concert. He had a team in place and a supply of building materials and returned to the island to start on the project.

Retired Kapiti builders Bruce Allwood and Barry Redican and their wives were on the team, as well as six other volunteers.

"Having the experience of Bruce and Barry pushed the project way ahead of my schedule," Mr Khouzame said.

"They jumped on board, set a day-to-day schedule for each of the team. I was doing the foundations and footings, Bruce was on framing, Barry's team was doing the trusses. Johannes and Cien, two of our team members, had no building experience but they were as keen as mustard, pre-drilling the roofing iron.

"Having a work programme really accelerated things and we had the school building closed-in and all the electrical work done in seven days."

Working with the locals posed some problems. Mr Khouzame said they were accustomed to working for a couple of hours, then taking a lunch break, followed by a siesta in the afternoon heat.

"I had to do some serious sweet talking. We couldn't have done it without the locals but there was laborious and time consuming work to be done."

One task was transporting all the sand for the construction from a beach 400 metres away. Without a vehicle they carried all the sand in sandbags and wheelbarrows.

"At times we were there on the beach at 11pm, digging up sand."

As well as the New Zealand team, the project received great support from people in Samoa.

A woman Mr Khouzame met on his first trip, last October, supplied him with a water tank  a saving of about $4500.

Tourists handed over euros, "and there was a constant stream of good wishes, donations and support".

A well-wisher filled a storeroom in the school with toys and educational products.

Mr Khouzame said the main school building was completed but there was still work to be done and he planned a third trip to the island, this time to build a perimeter fence and landscape the grounds and to provide a lining for the ceiling of the building to keep the schoolrooms cooler.

"It has been a high stress, intense project and we had to contend with the heat and torrential rains, but all in all I'm stoked with the outcome.

He said there was now a need for health and environmental work on the island and he was applying for funding to send a teacher and health educator to a conference in Nebraska which would focus on those issues.

- Kapiti Observer