St Dominic's was established in 1971 by the Brothers and has become a showpiece for this type of education throughout the world. It is a Rural Training Centre, which provides young men from the villages with vocational training in building, mechanics and agriculture.

St Dominics is in the Western Solomons, near the border of Papua New Guinea. The town of Gizo is on an adjacent island and is a centre for scuba diving and has a potential tourist industry. School Students spend two years at Vanga receiving training which is designed to equip them with the ability to begin income-generating activities when they return to the villages.

Employment and economic opportunities in towns are limited, but an education that advances village life has the chance to have a greater effect on the alleviation of poverty and the advancement of people. Students go through a two-year course, the second of which encourages them to develop their own income-generating project at the Centre as a model for future development back in the village.

All students are boarders and are required to grow most of their own food to supplement their school fee of about $100 per year.

The students come from all over the Solomon Islands. There are many more applications for a place at the Centre than there are positions available. Students are normally in their 20s and need to have come from the villages, where they would have had to have led a productive life from the time of leaving school in Grade 6 until their entry into St Dominic’s. The aim is for these students to return to the village and not compete for employment in the towns.

Since very early on, St Dominic's has been a self-sustaining project through the sale of its produce in the local area and in the country. In the current economic situation, this has become less possible. There is very little economic activity since the end of hostilities in 2003. Political life is unstable and results in a poor investment climate. The country is still reliant on massive overseas aid. Cash flow is very limited and the Solomon dollar has depreciated to the extent that the exchange sees over five Solomon dollars to buy one Australian dollar.

Marist students are invited to enter into a partnership with St Dominic’s to provide a program of financial support for the time that it is needed and to continue to support our volunteer program.

 

Recent projects at Vanga have seen the establishment of a Teachers College to train teachers for Rural Training Centres and in 2006 the establishment of St Marcellin School for the children of the local villages and the children of the young teachers of St Dominic’s. A Marist education precinct is rapidly developing.

St Joseph’s educates students from Form 1 to 7 (years 8 to 13). It began in the late 1940s as a boys school then became co-educational in 1972. The school is one of seven national secondary schools. Students travel from all over the Solomons to board there. Their families are usually subsistence farmers from coastal and rural areas, who work and live off the land. The majority of students are Melanesians, with some Polynesians and Micronesians. This reflects in the immense cultural diversity of the Solomon Islands.

Students study subjects such as Maths, Social Sciences and English, as well as Traditional Culture and Agriculture. There is a strong academic focus, shown in many of the students continuing to study at university. But this is balanced by practical skills, keeping students in touch with traditional gardening and farming techniques. Even university graduates will eventually return to their homes and need to provide for their families on the farms.

There are three Marist Brothers in the school: one Solomon Islander, one Papua New Guinean and one Australian, as well as a staff of thirty.

Currently in the Solomons there is an unsettled political climate and an economic crisis made worse by Government tensions and cultural differences. Farmers who once were able to survive by selling their produce are unable to do so because of a general shortage of income, so for a period of time, supplementary forms of financial assistance are required. St Joseph’s relies on the financial support of Government grants and school fees, and now, because of Government tensions, even more heavily on the support of the wider Marist family.

Marist students and teachers at the school do not wish to be seen as dependent. They all have food gardens and spend time in the cocoa plantations and therefore support their own education. It is for the education materials and resources that they ask our help.

Laumanasa is an established postulancy, also located at Tenaru. Young men training to be Brothers complete their second year at Lamanasa before possibly heading off to Lomeri in Fiji for two years novitiate.