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2015 NEWS ARCHIVE

APTC students and staff lend a helping hand in Cyclone Pam relief efforts

Mar 31, 2015

In the aftermath of Cyclone Pam, students and staff from the Australia-Pacific Technical College (APTC) campus in Vanuatu have been quick to lend a helping hand to the relief efforts in Port Vila. 

APTC volunteers have offered their services to Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), coordinating the volunteer registration desk, supporting the coordination of aid donors, agencies and the media at the front desk, undertaking office administration tasks and data entry for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), unpacking food relief containers and distributing food packages to evacuation centres.  

APTC volunteers have also helped clean up the Vanuatu Institute of Technology (VIT) campus.

The support provided by APTC volunteers has been greatly appreciated by NDMO and other ministries. Many media interviews with the Prime Minister of Vanuatu and various other government ministers have been conducted in the midst of APTC volunteers’ efforts, which have been broadcasted across the globe.

VIT Principal Kalpat Kalbeo is very grateful for the assistance provided by the APTC staff and students, from Vanuatu and other Pacific countries, from the Tourism, Hospitality and Early Childhood Education and Care programs in helping to clean up the VIT campus.

“Many of our regional students have been helping out even while they wait for news of their loved ones and young children from various islands throughout Vanuatu. Their daily courage in such adversity has been at times, heart breaking to observe,” said APTC Community Development Trainer Annie Dares.

The APTC campus in Vanuatu resumed business on Monday, 23rd March. 

Funded by the Australian Government, APTC offers a range of courses in areas such as hospitality, community services, tourism and other trades across its campuses in Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. For more information about APTC, please visit: www.aptc.edu.au

APTC is an Australian Government initiative in partnership with the Pacific and Timor-Leste.

APTC is implemented by TAFE Queensland (RTO 0275)

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