Funafuti report

KAUPULE FUNAFUTI
LUPUS FUNAFUTI
TUVALU

MOST UP TO DATE INFORMATION EVENTS TAKE PLACE RECENTLY
June-July 2004

Tuvalu National Sustainable Development for the year 2004-2005:
All high chiefs, Island Presidents from the eight islands of Tuvalu participate in the 2 weeks workshop training that took place at the Funafuti Tausoalima hall (meeting house). Include in the participation were representatives of women, youth and participants from non-government organisations i.e TANGO etc.

Tuvalu New Government Office Building:
A three storey building funded by Taiwan. The first ever three-storey built in the island country state. Though Tuvalu is small, the three-storey building is the highlight of all the buildings in Tuvalu. It accommodates the public employees, a friendlier environment.

Multi Purpose Court
Work at the multi purpose court project is half way to completion, although it is still on the move by the Funafuti community. It is expected to complete sometimes towards the end of the year.The project will serve as a recreation centre for sports activities for the young people to engage themselves in a more constructive way rather than idling away their time.

The Tafua Pond
This is quite a new project to be introduced sometimes this year. The project is expected to be off the ground sometimes in September-October.

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A note from Clive Smith about the twinning

The twinning with Funafuti grew first from the KTA visit here in 2000. The Town Clerk - Owen Wilson - the Councillors and the people loved it.

Then in 2001 they heard of the fire on Vaitupu and sent a message of condolence before I even knew of the fire.

Owen Wilson then  asked if there was anything we could do, and I think he may have suggested twinning. The then Mayor, Douglas James, and the then Deputy Mayor David Wright were for it right from the beginning, and one of them may have suggested it. At any rate when I came back from the anniversary meeting in Vaitupu in 2002 they had got the idea.

They wanted to twin with Kiribati, but with a population of 90,000, and not too clear about towns other than Tarawa we didn't know where to start. However Funafuti with a population of 5,000 was nearly the same size as Dunmow which was then 6,000. The land area of less than 1 square mile (2.8 sq. km plus a lot of lagoon) isn't far off Dunmow's 4 square miles (including a lot of green space). We're both rather 'different' towns. It seemed a good idea so we approached Funafuti.

Funafuti said 'Yes'. They had had a lot of offers of twinning at a Twinning conference in Brussels, and had refused them all because they thought the offers came from towns with nothing in common.

The pity is that we rarely hear from Funafuti. Still, I hope to go there in November.

Tiabo, Tofa

Clive.