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Vanuatu

Ms Nelly Willy

Commonwealth Youth Programme South Pacific Regional Youth Caucus

 

In her last seven years working with young people, Nelly Willy has experienced everything from leading a group of young internationals in a community project in Vanuatu, to being led herself on an HIV and AIDS in Africa.

 

Now 28, Nelly started out with a Tourism and Travel diploma from the Vanuatu Institute of Technology, but through her involvement with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church’s Fresh Wind youth club from 1999 became involved with community work.

 

Through Fresh Wind, Nelly took part in workshops with NGOs like Wan Smol Bag Theatre and Foundation for the People of the South Pacific (FSP). In 2000, Nelly was lucky enough to attend a workshop run by UNICEF called the Pacific Stars Life Skills Curriculum, which she says was when she started to become familiar with the issues affecting young people’s lives.

 

It wasn’t long before Nelly was chosen to become a Pacific Stars Life Skills ‘Master Trainer’, and began delivering workshops in Port Vila and other parts of Vanuatu with the Vanuatu Young People’s Project under Vanuatu Kaljoral Senta (VKS).

 

In 2003, Nelly was selected as one of 40 Vanuatu Pacific Stars Life Skills Master Trainers to go on an ‘HIV and AIDS Pacific Study Tour’ to Africa.  The group travelled to Zambia, South Africa and Kenya and visited groups, including groups of young people, who were living with HIV and AIDS. The group of Pacific peoples saw first-hand the effect the disease can have on individuals and communities, which Nelly says was a real eye-opener for all on the tour.

 

“When I returned,” says Nelly, “I became strongly involved in developing awareness about HIV and AIDS in Vanuatu. The Africa tour increased my passion on youth issues and HIV and AIDS. The main message that I go with now is that ‘in Vanuatu we do not have numbers to play with when it comes to HIV and AIDS’.” 

 

Nelly was selected as a Youth Co-ordinator for Youth Challenge Vanuatu in 2004, which she describes as a “dream come true” but also a big challenge. As a youth co-ordinator she was working with an international group leader to lead young people from Australia, Canada and ni Vanuatu youth in their work with a rural Vanuatu community for five to ten weeks at a time. 

 

Nelly says working as a native French speaker in an English-speaking organisation, with youth who were culturally very different, and leading people who were more highly-qualified than her made the experience a real test.

 

“I must say I learned a lot working with Youth Challenge, and Youth Challenge shaped me – I owe them a lot.”

 

Nelly now works as a Youth Development Officer for Oxfam International Vanuatu, which only adds to the already great experiences she’s had: “With all the skills, knowledge and experience I have gained from it all, I am very proud to be where I am at the moment”.    

 

In her role as CYP South Pacific’s Regional Youth Caucus representative for Vanuatu, Nelly wants to ensure youth voice and representation are included at all levels of decision-making – locally, provincially and nationally.

 

“The knowledge that I have working with young people in Vanuatu and of issues facing young people including my current work with Oxfam International Vanuatu makes me proud to represent my peers and effectively advocate for us young people.” 

 

Email: nellyw@oxfam.org.au

 

 

 

 

 

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