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Charity looking for some transport to Tonga!


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Hi all,

We are urgently looking for cargo space to Tonga for:
Medical Equipment (boxed, sealed, certified)

A wooden sailing dinghy (for teaching kids to sail)

10xVHF radios (for each village to escalate emergencies) 

We are a NZ charity that gives medical training and supplies to outer island villages (teach a man to fish ideology).

A sailor myself, I sailed to Tonga on my 30 foot wooden yacht and found that there were problems in these communities that we can solve.

Our boats have a full offshore kits, at least one trained medic, yet communities of 300 have nothing.

Help us help others. Any big boats who can strap a 12 foot dinghy down to their deck?

We've already been to Opua but are now looking last ditch for non-ICA boats going up. 

Please get in touch with me

Craig Koning

Founder

Floating Foundation

021 414762
craig@floatingfoundation.net

 

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Wow thanks all!

Yeah I met Shane actually. Is a lovely guy, owns Moorings and Tonga Beach Resort. I should actually reach out to him.

Deadline is coming a little close. Just purchased a lovely little sunburst dinghy for over there (trying to get another one so I can get two villages racing them). Maybe he can strap one to his deck. Shipping is over $800.

Yeah, transport around the islands is bottle-necked by a shortage of in service vessels. This is for a reason however.
We'd like to offer a free 2-stroke engine maintenance course in the Tongan islands next year. Another thing we found that was really asked for in the island communities. Things are going bang for silly reasons and with dire consequences.

I should start looking for sailors who'd volunteer their time to help me design a course I can teach.



 

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Just wondering. Is the problem more to do with the availability of parts, even just basic service items?

Absolutely this is an issue. However, you don't really need that many parts (aside from regular service items) if you just don't screw up the motor! I've spent a fair bit of time in a couple of workshops in the islands and had chats with owners (who are normally lending me their space to fix something on my boat). 

They see the most ridiculous stuff. 

 

Normally with such an idea, we just run a pilot program and see how it goes. Then we try get sponsorship, get some tools up there. Our 'Island Mechanics' are the only ones allowed to access the tools and if tools go missing then they have to make a formal request for replacements (it happens).

It's just an idea. 

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Ta for the update. A quote from the article:

 

Kaho, the Tongan-Kiwi poet who left the 2016 voyage early amid safety and bullying concerns, believes Koning's philanthropic work should not be a shield. "There are people like me who see him as damaging and someone who needs to be stopped, and there are people who really buy what he peddles which is this white saviour on a yacht in the Pacific, helping people," she says.

"If you're not looking at him saying 'this guy is spouting a lot of sh*t,' you're buying it."

 

I'd be interested to hear what the paediatrician and Stuff health columnist Dr Tom Mulholland has to say about the medical side.

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