Find us on http://www.manawanuiproject.org
or write to us on info@manawanuiproject.org
A new voyage for August 2025 is in current planing stage.
Get involved in this exciting project. Please contact us if you think you could add to the success of this project with your skills.
”The total comes to US$140 billion a year. That’s US$16 million of climate damage every hour. ”
Dr Daithi Stone from NIWA
Through some of our previous expeditions we have seen the negative effects our rapid changing climate already has on some isolated communities in the pacific.
This led us to form a non profit organisation that we will register under the name
MANAWANUI PROJECT ( translation: big heart project or determined project)
The SY MANAWANUI is a 22m steel ketch that we will use in stage 1 of a a long journey that is dedicated to empower isolated communities for climate resilience.
Why are we going there?
we have been asked by the Arikis( chiefs) of Tikopia after cyclone Lola for support.
Our subsequent fundraising has been pretty successful in principal.
This made us realise that a more grassroots, les bureaucratic but direct approach is needed.
Those who donated deserve to see what their funds have been used for, and those to whom the funds have been directed to, deserve that the that funds provide on site results.
The MANAWANUI PROJECT is our answer to this grassroots approach.
With MANAWANUI we hope to provide essential tools like transport, communication and networking to boost community resilience.
By engaging with tribal chiefs so we understand their real needs , and by connecting isolated tribes with other communities for shared learning and resources and by offering free the service of SY MANAWANUI for transport and communication we aim to contribute towards building resilience in communities vulnerable to climate change impacts.
It is our believe that together we can find solutions that help to eliminate the need for emergency measures after disaster has struck.
By helping to build sustainable partnerships in connecting communities for knowledge sharing and support networking we want to be part of a of a global impact towards a sustainable future for all generations to come.
Our team is planing to leave New Zealand in August 2025 and sail towards the Eastern Solomon Islands into the Temotu province to engage in these conversations. We will offer satellite communications to connect islands and families, and we will offer small scale transport.
We will return in November 2025 to New Zealand and will then evaluate what we learned from the chiefs and the communities we visited.
The outcome of this first voyage will then determine the future objectives of the MANAWANUI PROJECT. However, we envision that the SY MANUEANNUI can eventually be operated by a trained local crew, and can be permanently stay in the region.