Volley4Change

The development team delivered their final sessions today, wrapping up a busy week on Atchin Small island.

Sarai Stephens led the morning session on .
She divided participants into 3 groups. Group 1 did power with; Group 2 did power within & Group 3 did power over. Each group discussed and presented or did role play on the different power categories.
It was a lot of fun and a good experience for participants to understand the different kinds of power.
Sarai then concluded the power session using a candle lighting activity, showing how power shared actually increases overall power, just like candles don’t lose their power when shared but becomes more effective because more candles lit will create more light.
It was then Stanley Toa's turn to lead the next session on Public Speaking. This was the final session for the day and the week on Atchin Small island.
Stanley asked 3 of the mama's to share their experience of just to help others in the group to speak in a public space, and also to give courage and confidence to young women. Old mamas shared their experiences to help the young women to speak in the Public arena or to a group or room.
The day wrapped up with the church Elder giving short remarks of appreciation of what staff have done on the island with the local Atchin communities, reflecting also on how much they had all learned.
Next week, Stanley will again be spending time with the wider Atchin community when he delivers an additional coaching course on Monday.


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UPDATE: program on Atchin Small island, Malekula.
In today's session, Sarai Stephens began with the morning devotion and recapped the elements of yesterday's session.

Stanley Toa then delivered the session on Leadership, dividing the participants into 3 groups with different questions about the for each group. The groups then did individual presentations on what they had written and discussed.
It was a good experience for everyone and they learned a lot about leadership from today’s session.
Following that, Sarai took over and delivered a session on Nutrition, showing and explaining the sugar content of popular fizzy drinks, and juices as well as cream biscuits.
One participant measured the number of teaspoons in a particular drink or food packet based on information on the food product. Then there was a discussion on the value of plain water and green coconut water for the body, especially during and after training or any physical activity.
They also discussed the need for good hydration by drinking plenty of water, finally touching on the need for good quality sleep every night - which is understandably challenging for mothers who are usually the first ones up and last to sleep. But Sarai reminded them of yesterday’s gender inclusion topic and working together (division of labour) as a family to ease the load on mama.
Stanley then organised 2 modified games with the participants.
- Lava & Number Calling games. They learned a lot from the modified games which related to the leadership roles within the modified games.
The then participants played volleyball, which they all enjoyed immensely.


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UPDATE: program on Atchin Small island, Malekula.
For the Wednesday morning session, Stanley Toa discussed the topic of Gender Inclusion and Labor.
He divided the participants into 4 groups, then used the flipcharts to describe the different types of work undertaken in a home and a community, then participants discussed this in their groups, dividing which activities or work to put under which Gender in which column:
• wok blo man
• wok blo woman
• wok blo man mo woman

Following this activity and some good discussion, Sarai Stephens took over and led the next session on

Interestingly, Sarai discovered during the Participant Survey time that one of the participants, Nassaie Namol, had done a social inclusion course for 6 months in Port Vila with APTC, from which she taught other teachers at her school and district to be more inclusive in their treatment of those with disabilities.
So Sarai invited her to speak to the other participants about key points she discovered during her studies. Sarai then extended the conversation adding points about the types of health problems or impairments plus barriers faced by PwD. She also highlighted that anyone can get an impairment through health issues like NCDs (eg: diabetes - when a limb is removed).
Plus, with increased mental health cases in the communities, it’s become even more important to find ways to help those with various disabilities to feel comfortable and included on their local communities.
A really important discussion, which was followed by Stanley, introducing one practical way to practise inclusion - through Sitting Volleyball.
He then set up the sitting volleyball court, getting the participants to try it, to see how the set up looks and how it feels to play a different type of volleyball …. they loved it!
During this activity, Sarai completed all the participants' health surveys.


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Always something happening at VVF ....
VVF, through its program, is partnering with the Department Correctional Services, Vanuatu to run a Mixed team volleyball tournament in support of its 'Yellow Ribbon Program' - which supports the reintegration & rehabilitation of ex-offenders and former inmates.
The theme for the event - "Safe Community, Second Chances: Celebrating 20 years of Corrections Excellence in Vanuatu" 👏👏

WHEN: Monday 6 July & Thursday 9 July, 2026
WHERE: Stade Beach courts, VVF Head office, Port Vila

**Limited number of team entries (12) so get in quick**

REGISTER: Forms can be collected from the VVF Office or via email to [email protected]
Further enquiries: call 34256


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Day 2 on Atchin Small Island for the team, their second week in this broaser Atchin island area of Malekula.
Today, the health team joined with nurses Jimmy and Jenny from the Health Clinic on Atchin Mainland coming across to conduct health checks for 30 local community participants.

Nurse Jimmy gave an overall impression on their health status as a community, and was, in general, fairly happy with them all. Those that did not have good results were known NCD (non-communicable disease) patients, and he was pleased to find a couple of them, who hadn’t been in for a health check over the past year, were among the group.
This meant the health team were able to reconnect with those patients and start giving them medication. Jimmy encouraged them to take ownership of their own health and to visit the clinic every couple of months for a quick check up, so they could identify issues early.
He was also direct with them saying that the medication only controlled their health issues and symptoms, but did not cure the health condition – a change in their lifestyle habits was what was needed for better health overall.

Participants were then interviewed by Stephens for the Baseline NCD survey.
While the interviews were happening, the rest of the participants got into some volleyball fun outside.


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The Development team are still in Malekula this week, but have made the trip across to Atchin Small island.
Monday was a very busy day with Stanley Toa leading the session on Communication.
There are 3 kinds of styles. Stanley divided the 23 attending participants into 3 groups, and shared the flip chart with them, and from that they developed role play scenarios of the different kinds of communication:
• 1. Passive communication
• 2. Assertive communication
• 3. Aggressive communication
Everyone enjoyed the session with the older mamas also sharing their ideas and their experiences.
Stanley then created 2 modified games with the participants, from which they learned some key lessons.
It was a really good experience for them.

Afternoon session … and into some practical volleyball activities.
Stanley helped the participants with serving skills, and they played volleyball matches while Sarai Stephens conducted interviews for the necessary data gathering part of the program.

The V4C will return to the small island on Tuesday to continue the program with the addition of health checks to be conducted on all participants by a health worker from Health Centre on Atchin Mainland, who will join them in the crossing to Atchin Small Island in the morning.


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FINAL DAY - wrapping up the week for in Wurarie community on Malekula.
Today's session is continuing on the theme of Leadership & Power, looking at the theory behind the ideas with information, discussion and activities.

Before getting into that, Sarai Stephens started with a short devotional relating to today’s lesson about leaders needing to act wisely and strategically to carry out the vision they have in the community.
Leadership:
The V4C staff got the participants to reflect on how they can develop a more positive view of their worth – so in small groups the participants shared what makes their friends and family happy with them and what makes them feel good.
Then they individually reflected on the positive values they find in themselves before looking at what leadership means. They also then brainstormed about what a good leader looks like (eg: good character qualities) vs what makes a bad leader.
Sarai added to those ideas using a flip chart depicting good leaders and leadership, and after each quality, she asked them whether a man and a woman could both have these qualities. It was eventually agreed that both men and women could be considered as leaders with these qualities.

Then the session discussion moved to Power. They were taught about the 3 types of power - pawa ova, pawa tugeta and pawa insaed. Participants were then given role play activities to do to illustrate these types of power.
The session finished with a candle lighting activity showing how if one candle lights another candle, power never gets lost, but it increases as more light is produced - as is the way in a community

It was then time for the issuing of certificates. Stanley Toa handed over some equipment - net, ball and pump - to a local community leader in the group to ensure they continue using the learned volleyball skills.
The group then very kindly handed over to the V4C team some gifts of appreciation for delivering the program.


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Day 4 for in Wurarie community.

Morning Devotion was led by Sarai Stephens followed by a recap of yesterday's session.
Then Stanley Toa divided all the participants into 2 groups.
The team created a circle with the 2 groups to go through some and activities - moving to the right or left. Then Sarai and Stanley asked questions getting participants to tell the answers to the friends who were standing in front of each of them.
Stanley then set up 2 modified games [Number & Lava], and then related the messaging about Power and Leadership to the modified games.
The participants got a lot out of the activity and will follow it up with a theory and discussion session on this topic tomorrow, followed by the issuing of certificates.
Today's session finished with a volleyball game.


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Day 3 with in the Wurarie community began with a recap of yesterday’s activities.
Today consisted of two sessions - Disability Inclusion and Gender Inclusion & Labour.
Sarai Stephens led a session with participants moving outside to do an activity about what barriers stop people with disabilities (PWD) going to church, road access and at the community hall. They did well in moving around and trying to identify any possible barriers for PwD. After that the participants shared their stories as a group.
Modified game - the Nest game. Every participant took part in this game. Stanley Toa then related what they had learned from the earlier session to the Modified games.
The next part of the day moved to and .
After refreshments, the group set up a Sitting Volleyball court inside the community hall.
The afternoon session saw the group take part in a sitting volleyball indoor game and outdoor volleyball. Every participant enjoyed the session and the volleyball activities.
It was a good for participants to experience the sitting volleyball game and how it felt to play that form of volleyball.


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Day 2 with on Atchin Island.
Today’s session included a health check and the topic of the day was .
The Nutrition message, led by Sarai Stephens included an explanation about different products such as Sprite, Twisties etc. with Sarai talking about the amounts of sugar inside each product.
Participants were very surprised to find out about the high levels.

The health nurse performed the checks on all participants and also helped by offering remarks about the results of the Health checks, encouraging participants to look after their wellbeing and encouraging everyone to do health checks regularly.
Sarai Stephens also did the health check interviews / questionnaire with all the participants.
Then it was time for a modified game called Ice Cream.
Participants learned a lot from the Modified game, and Stanley helped them to apply the messaging about nutrition to the game based activity.
In the afternoon V4C development officer Stanley Toa took them outside to explain the court measurements, height of nets for males and females, scoring and then answered any questions about game rules the participants asked. He then went through volleyball rules, line judging, and referee signal signs and then had some of the participants taking on the duties of the referee, line judge, and the scoring.
Everyone really enjoyed all the elements - the modified games, Health check and the nutrition discussion.

It was a good session overall with all the included elements making for a very busy V4C Day 2.

Tomorrow, other participants will have their turn to do referee etc.
This referee refresher session will help teachers and other participants during the upcoming MISSA GAMES at Lakatoro.



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