International Programs

The Pacific Resilience Fund (PRF) is an Indigenous Led Fund (ILF) that responds to the needs of South Pacific Islanders in their ongoing adaptation to climate change, pandemics, and globalization. The distribution of PRF and its complementary programming are guided by a Pacific Islander Advisory Council (PIAC) of trusted members, all of whom are deeply involved in grassroots community development throughout the South Pacific.

As an ILF, Pacific Islanders direct the design, strategy setting, implementation, monitoring and funds disbursement, which results in empowerment, resurgence, and self-determination. To date, the PRF has funded:

• Research conducted by Melanesian Women Today (MWT) to support female identified business owners and entrepreneurs
• A program created by Living Islands and Lihn Mwoakilloa Inc. that addresses food security in Mwoakilloa Atoll (Micronesia) by reintroducing local flour production
• Programming by Save PNG to create awareness in rural South Pacific communities about food security, women’s health and wellness
• Programming by Save PNG to provide marketing opportunities for local weavers and artists who use natural fibres and dyes harvested within their communities
• Programming by Samoa Social Welfare Fesoasoani Trust (SSWEFT) that provides support to Somoan community members during Covid-19
• Programming by Erromango Cultural Assocation in Erromango, Vanuatu to support food security by training community members in traditional food preservation methods
• Rebuilding the Loreto School in Levuka, Fiji
• Convert existing infrastructure in Wan Smol Bag, Vanuatu into emergency evacuation spaces 

PPP supports the calls for democracy, equality and human rights in West Papua, located on the western half of the island of New Guinea and home to over 250 diverse tribes with distinct languages, cultures and traditions. We advocate for our partners and the Indigenous Peoples of West Papua who aspire to express their aspirations and right to self-determination. We advocate for human rights and call to end extrajudicial killings and the imprisonment of peaceful protesters.

Over the last 50 years, Indonesia has relocated hundreds of thousands of people into West Papua in an effort to undermine and weaken calls for independence. West Papua now has an approximate 50/50 split between transmigrants and Indigenous Papuans.

We continue to call on both the Canadian and Indonesian government to end the human rights abuses that are ongoing in West Papua and to work towards recognizing its independence.

Read our Call to Action and the following resources to learn more about the Indonesian Government-led repression in South Pacific island territory:

• Free West Papua Campaign
• Cultural Survival: West Papua (Forgotten War)
• The Conversation: How the world failed West Papua
• Dr. David Webster: Self-Determination Abandoned: The Road to the New York Agreement on West New Guinea (Papua)
• Dr. David Webster: Race, Identity and Diplomacy on the Papua Decolonization Struggle
• Crying Freedom: Heroic Tales from the Unstoppable Nation of West Papua

PPP partnered with The Women and Children Crisis Centre (WCCC) in Tonga to support WCCC with a project to deliver mobile counseling clinics to some of the remote islands. Founded in 2009 by ʻOfa Guttenbeil-Likiliki, WCC is the leading human rights organization in Tonga and provides resources and support, such as counseling services and safe houses, to women experiencing domestic violence, while educating men and children about the impacts of gender-based violence (GBV).

Initially planning to deliver 18 clinics across 2 remote islands, the recent Covid-19 pandemic pushed the team at WCCC to be creative and re-evaluate what the best approach is to work with communities on the remote islands. 

To date WCCC has delivered:

• 2 mobile counseling clinics to ‘Eua 
• 17 mobile counselling talanoa clinics to the Ha’apai group covering: ‘Uiha, Kotu, Lofanga, Mo’unga’one, Ha’ano, Muitoa, Fakakai, and Pukotala, in addition to 5 communities in Foa, and 4 communities in Lifuka
• Awareness programs for all community members (children, youth and leaders)

Learn more about WCCC here!

Founded in 2017, the Vendor’s Collective Voice project is a collaboration between PPP, HELP-Resources, and Voice for Change in Papua New Guinea (PNG). In PNG, women dominate market vending and informal street trade economies. Often, women vendors in these spaces have endured multiple forms of gender based discrimination, unsafe working conditions and extortion. 

Vendor’s Collective Voice provides targeted training on informal economy law, building databases to monitor the implementation of PNG’s Informal Economy Act (2011), assistance to strengthen engagement between local government and vendors, and technical assistance to establish and sustain participatory governance structures related to the informal economy.

The Informal Economy Act intends to stimulate marketplaces and street trade economies, recognizing that these areas are critical for livelihoods across the country. Through this act, women vendors stand to see significant social and economic empowerment. The Act requires provincial and local governments to build the capacities of vendors in informal economies, but roll-out of the program has been slow. Both vendors and government actors are in need of training and tools to support implementation of this policy, participatory governance and constructive dialogue.

In PNG, training through the Informal Economy Development project has continued despite limitations – making vendors aware of the PNG Constitution, the Informal Economy Act, and PNG’s commitments to global human rights, gender equality norms and standards, and sustainable and inclusive development. Penial Kabilo, the project lead, has reported that the Wewak Market Vendors Association has been a valuable tool in monitoring and reporting the difficulties vendors have faced during the pandemic. Information that vendors provided supported HELP-Resources in liaising with partners to provide a safe and conducive working environment for vendors.

Now in its third year, Vendors Collective Voices has been extended to March 2021, with generous additional funding from the Commonwealth Foundation. This is especially supportive given the impacts of Covid-19 on traders. ​After months of restrictions causing market closures and preventing travel, PNG has eased restrictions by allowing travel and reopening markets.

HELP – Resources PNG

HELP-Resources has visually documented the main Wewak market for a decade, knows its political and economic history, physical, political, social and economic challenges and potential.  HELP-R has a strong track record in quality research, capacity and knowledge building and project design and delivery and is recognised nationally and regionally for domestication/localisation of national and global law, development commitments and frameworks. It’s founding Director (now Technical adviser) has researched markets across Melanesia and designed successful UN Women market projects for Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The Village Voices Project is focused on supporting vulnerable communities through the Pacific Resiliency Fund. We recognize the family as the foundation of the community, and through our projects we support vulnerable families with the goal of strengthening both family and community.

In 2022, the Village Voices Project helped to rebuild a Samoan family’s home after their original coast-side house was washed away by rising sea levels associated with climate change. Our project funded building supplies for the family, helping to build them a new home further inland. This is becoming a common issue in Samoa, where more and more of the community are needing to move away from the coastline as sea levels continue to rise in the South Pacific.

The Samoa Rugby Ball Project is a partner project created with the BC Grassroots Rugby Foundation with the aim of donating rugby balls to those in need in Samoa. Currently, children in many Samoan communities do not have access to this kind of sports equipment. This project has purchased and is currently in the process of sending 585 rugby balls to communities in Samoa. The donated rugby balls will be directly distributed to local schools in Samoa. This gives Samoan youth the chance to engage in meaningful sport and recreation for many years to come.

There is still a need for more sports equipment in Samoa. We have received a direct request for soccer cleats from our partner in the country. If you would like to get involved with the project and make a donation, please get in touch with us or consider contributing to the Pacific Resiliency Fund.