In the past decade, Caroline Salisbury has sent more than 200 sewing machines to Vanuatu and collected huge volumes of fabric to help communities learn to sew their own clothes.
From her home in the Arvida Waimea Plains retirement village, Caroline and her partner Jim Lewis raise funds for sewing machines that are sent to Vanuatu, and twice a year they fly over to run workshops that teach the women how to use and maintain the machines.
The project began 10 years ago after Caroline saw images of the devastation caused by Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu and decided to collect patchwork quilts to send over.
She ended up with 741 quilts donated from around New Zealand that were packaged to transport on a vessel and she went as well to help distribute them.
“I only intended to take the quilts and go home.” But one of the Vanuatu woman set her in a different direction.
“An old lady took me into her house and showed me an old rusty, muddy, antique sewing machine that was destroyed by the water running through it.”
Back home, she set about collecting second-hand machines to send over.
“I ended up collecting 100 second-hand electric sewing machines and I went over and ran a couple of workshops, teaching the women to sew with these older machines.”
But the older machines became “a nightmare” to keep going and that led to Caroline approaching Bernina which agreed to sell their Bernette machines at a reduced price of $180.
Since then, she has been busy fundraising for the new machines by talking to groups and clubs, which has resulted in 130 of the “little blues” machines and remnants of fabric being sent to Vanuatu.
The Kiwanis International Club came on board with the project to pay for the shipping containers which take a range of goods to Vanuatu, including the machines.
Operating sewing machines in Vanuatu has its challenges though. The humid, salty environment plays havoc on the machines and can cause them to seize. Jim’s job is to teach the women how to keep them running well and, ultimately, have them teach others.
They have set up sewing groups around the main island and most of the women have been learning how to handle an electrical machine for the first time, as well as sewing.
At one of the earlier workshops, a woman who had was initially daunted by the sewing machines, told Caroline she “thought he would eat me and now he’s my friend”.
“Many of the women have minimal education and this is about self confidence to achieve something you have done.”
Jim has a motto that describes their sewing machine project: “Give a woman clothes and clothe her for now. Teach a woman to sew and you clothe the family for the future”.
The couple are due to return to Vanuatu in May and two other residents from the retirement village are going as well to help, while others have donated machines. This will be the first time they have visited since the December earthquake and they know some of the machines may need to be repaired.
Caroline says she is always looking for more donations for machines, but also fabric that people have at home. She is also keen to talk to groups and clubs about the project, with contact details on the Facebook page, Kiwanis Threads Across the Pacific.
