ARARAT - A group of Ararat Rotarians and friends visited Fiji to assist in building a village.
However not only did they assist in this project they contributed so much more.
The group consisted of Trevor and Marg Webb, John Stacpoole and volunteer Charlie Millear and were joined by Alan Gay from the Ballarat East Rotary Club
Among their achievements was fixing an ambulance, repairing a computer printer and equipment at a remote maternity hospital, finding a hefty donation and almost delivering a baby!
The team was listed to build cook houses in Koroipita Village, on the northern outskirts of Fiji's second largest city, Lautoka.
The group was astounded by the village and the people in it.
"We knew we were there to build houses but the concept is far greater than that,'' Trevor Webb said.
"The philosophy behind the program that Peter Drysdale, from the Rotary Club of Lautoka, has implemented is incredible.
"The houses are the physical part, but that would not work on its own.''
Peter Drysdale has spent 23 years building houses for Fiji's poorest people, assisted by 600 teams of volunteers, mainly Rotarians from Australia and New Zealand.
The project is so well regarded as a model town for rehousing squatters that the Rotary International president, Dong Kurn Lee, from Korea visited it while the Ararat team was there.
Like all visitors to Koroipita, the Victorian visitors learnt how the village is a haven for those who have had to move from their previous accommodation because of unsafe conditions, illness or dire poverty.
While the Ararat Rotary team was there a family was moved in from their `home' which was a couple of corrugated iron sheets leaning against a tree into a house with lounge room, bed room and separate kitchen and shower/toilet unit.
"It's not what many tourists see when they come to Fiji,'' Charlie Millear said.
"It was obvious straight away that the greater majority is third world. We saw the real Fiji.''
The group was overwhelmed by the people's friendliness and were touched by the stories of residents in the village.
One mother, whose husband died in an accident two years ago, will die soon from cancer. She will leave behind seven children - the oldest son, at 17, will become head of the family. They are receiving the maximum available from social welfare - $100 a month - but this is not enough to pay the weekly rates of $7, feed, clothe and educate the children. However, the children will stay in the village. Other women and children had been the victims of domestic violence, one losing an arm when her husband attacked her with a cane knife.
For them all, the village is a haven. There is a strict no violence code and all must help keep the village clean and help the environment by cutting down on rubbish, composting and helping plant their own food.
While the Victorians set a cracking pace for the building they were also encouraged to see more of the Fijian countryside.
They headed to the north of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu, and stopped at a maternity hospital that Mrs Webb had visited earlier in the week.
The Webbs and Mr Stacpoole dropped in to visit Sister Udite who is in charge of the hospital which delivers around 30 babies a month.
It operates with only the most basic of equipment - a broken delivery bed, aged suction unit and barely enough disposable surgical equipment to last the week and no hot water.
They handed over an oxy reviver, donated by Dr and Mrs Hanscombe of Willaura, for use in the ambulance which did not have any oxygen on board.
Top of Mr Stacpoole's list was to look at the hospital's ambulance which had been out of action for nine months. Sister Udite had been unable to get a mechanic to the hospital, but after a few minutes of tinkering with the batteries and automatic choke he revived the vehicle, using his lifetime of skills as a motor engineer.
Mrs Webb, on another visit to the Hospital with Rotarian Steve Ellis and his wife Jacinta to deliver some donated medicines, tried to fix a sewing machine which Sister Udite used to make baby clothes for the new born. The babies otherwise returned home with their mothers into the mountains without any clothing.
As they had no luck with the sewing machine the drove to the nearest center Racki Racki, purchased a new sewing machine and then returned with it to the hospital so the newborns could have some sort of clothing when they leave hospital.
The Ra Maternity Hospital is run by Catholic Sister Udite who is also a qualified mid wife with virtually no support from the Government. The hospital does not have hot water and bakes outside in a old fuel drum. The hospital is desperate for new born baby clothes which the Rotary Club of Ararat will be collecting to ship to the Ra Hospital. Cash donations can also be passed to any Rotarian for the purchase of equipment etc for the Hospital.
Another experience for Mrs Webb was accompanying a very pregnant woman to hospital. The mother already had four children and the call came that her waters had broken.
Mrs Webb was a little nervous at driving over bumpy dirt roads with a woman in labour, but it was a false alarm.
Koroipita is an ongoing project - with 85 houses completed, and work on stage two, with another 126 houses soon to start.
There's more work to do so it's likely that these Rotarians and others, will return to Fiji to help build a better life for those in desperate need.