School Book Donations

Hi all, sorry if this has been asked and answered before but I did a search and can't find anything.

I saw on the Channel 9 show which had Explorer of the Seas visiting Mystery Island that they made a school book donation to local schools. We go to Mystery Island on our cruise in mid-February and was wondering if anyone knew of any particular supplies they were after as we'd like to bring some along to donate. Thanks.

Hi all, sorry if this has been asked and answered before but I did a search and can't find anything.

I saw on the Channel 9 show which had Explorer of the Seas visiting Mystery Island that they made a school book donation to local schools. We go to Mystery Island on our cruise in mid-February and was wondering if anyone knew of any particular supplies they were after as we'd like to bring some along to donate. Thanks.

Hi Poochie, There is a collection box near the airport/ start of markets. We are going to Mystery Island on our cruise on 14th Feb and will be taking exercise books ( we have 130, 48 page exercise books which Officeworks had on for 5c each, we would have got more but you were only allowed to get 30 at a time so we had to do click and collect online at different stores) scrapbooks plain paper, pens, pencils, rubbers, sharpeners. We also have a large box of chalk which we thought the teachers might be able to use. They are in need of anything useful for the children to use in their daily school life and evidently their library needs readers for all ages. I would love to take more but what we have is quite heavy, and you need to be able to carry it over to the island plus if you are flying to the ship it makes it difficult, but if a few people off each ship donate a small amount it would all add up to a generous donation. They said that they will share supplies with other schools in the area. I remember a few years ago visiting the school on Aneityum and talking to the principle, he showed us their supply cupboard which was empty. He said their years supply from the government was used in the first month. All donations will be gratefully accepted. Robin:)

Hi

Is there a similar set up - a donation box - anywhere else?

I will be going to PNG, Solomons and Vanuatu in September and have bought pens, pencils etc and was wondering how best to distribute them

I am very keen to do the right thing and not offend anyone :o

Poochie71 I am taking a supply of exercise books, lead pencils, erasers and sharpeners to Mystery Island on my mid Feb cruise, all donations are gladly accepted, I have the name of the school principal who I am going to mark everything for his attention. I,believe you also need to complete on board the ship before you can take any supplies over to,the island a landing form, the ship I believe have these they,need to be completed before you can drop anything off on the island. I will be dividing the supplies in all my family luggage as we will be flying into Sydney to board the ship. Cheers V

We have always taken supplies of pens, paper, exercise books, colouring pencils and black lead pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners and numerous other supplies. basically what kids use here at school would be used there. We also have taken packs of A4 paper.

Interesting about the forms, I have never filled in any forms on the ship, nor even told anyone on the ship that I was taking supplies to the schools. We just loaded up our backpack day packs and walked off the ship.

For anyone going to other islands, the school at Mare is right where you get off the tender boats. Villa there is often a stall in the market area asking for donations.

Also on mystery island they had a donation box where some people put cash if they didnt have any supplies to give. The box was where the little children would sit and sing to us. Evidently the school and kinder rotate the children that come each time a ship is in.

Thanks for your kindness to the children of the islands.

We have just left the school supplies in the donation box on Mystery Island.

Maybe the mention of 'filling out a form on the ship' was the cruiseline covering themselves legally with the Vanuatu authorities. A lot of people take donations of medical supplies, nappies etc. to Chrissie in Vila, but if the passenger was seen going ashore carrying large bags of stuff, the local authorities asked for Customs Duty to be paid on the import.

My suggestion is the same as those above - just put the items in the donation box. We have also taken children's story books to Dravuni because their library had virtually nothing in it.

I've seen a lot of talk about people donating exercise books etc across a few different mediums lately - perhaps a few could diversify their donating a little just in case they have a surplus of exercise books now? Maybe some learn to read and basic math books? They can be reused for years!

We gave pens and reading books as that is what was requested at the time.:D

When we did the trip on the CS just after "Pam" we took a couple of bags of mixed school items to take ashore at Santo. When asking CS reception about this they advised against taking the items ashore and suggested that provided we gave them an itemised list to meet customs requirements they would arrange for the items to be delivered where they were needed most. A few other passengers took donations of school materials on board as well.

When we were at MI recently there were no groups of children singing as it was apparently their holidays as well. I'm sure that if we had supplies of school materials one of the elders would have great fully accepted them.

Hullo,

We took school supplies and a cash donation to this little school last year. We carried ours in a large canvas tote and went straight to the tender, as normal. No 'checkout Charlie'. We were on the Oosterdam.

fe

Awesome! How did you find out what the current requests were?

Someone posted it on the roll call, I think they got the information from Trip Advisor.:D

Hi

 

Is there a similar set up - a donation box - anywhere else?

 

I will be going to PNG, Solomons and Vanuatu in September and have bought pens, pencils etc and was wondering how best to distribute them

 

I am very keen to do the right thing and not offend anyone :o

When we were there in 2014 we made up small packs with pencils, colouring books and just handed out to individual kids. We always checked with their parents first. Children and parents very shy as we were one of the first ships to visit. A most beautiful unspoiled place and with the friendliest people. Enjoy.

Thanks everyone for the information. I'll go to the shops this weekend and get some supplies for our cruise. Only 6 sleeps to go.

there is a facebook group called Help Chrissy that collects items to send over and cruisers take items over to Chrissy, and Ednah. They have information on the facebook page about what is needed and the items are shared all round the islands. They help the schools and the hospital. lots of helpful information there for cruisers wanting to donate.

there is a facebook group called Help Chrissy that collects items to send over and cruisers take items over to Chrissy, and Ednah. They have information on the facebook page about what is needed and the items are shared all round the islands. They help the schools and the hospital. lots of helpful information there for cruisers wanting to donate.

Thank you :)

I want to take some items on my September cruise to PNG, Solomons and Vanuatu and this is very helpful :)

PNG

Another thing you can do for the locals on Kiriwina and Doini is to spread the word for people to use Kina if they buy anything there.

The Islanders really lose out if they are given AUD when it comes to the middleman exchanging it to Kina for them.

You can get some before leaving Aust;

buy some at the Westpac in Alotau,

use the currency exchange guy who usually comes on board.

We were given the message many times by our port lecturer, but unfortunately it was obvious many failed to do so.

Buying by using Kina on the Islands really helps them a lot.

Thank you ;)

Last time we went to Vila we organised a trip to a school on the poor side of the island as this area is often forgotten. This was done through Harriet one of the bus drivers/tour guides in Vila. this allowed us to meet the children and hand out the supplies to each child. A very humbling experience for my wife and I and for our 12 & 9 year old kids.

The kids were so grateful to receive the pencils, sharpeners and books. Believe it or not, the most coveted items were rulers. It seems nobody thinks of them. Anyway we only had about 20 rulers so we ended up sending 30 more when we got back.

Cheers.

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