Week 2 - Assessing energy poverty in Tonga - by GoodReturn.org
Blog from the field - Celine our Sustainable Energy Program Manager is in Tonga assessing energy poverty and renewable energy options.
Second week in Tonga
The second week of my investigation trip brought me to the islands group of Vava’u, located at the central part of the Kingdom, only 1 hour by plane (or about 24 hours by boat) from the capital city.
Vava’u is a group of more than 50 islands, whose capital is Neiafu, the second largest town in Tonga, located on the island of ‘Utu Vava’u.
Vava’u is considered a tourist island, as it attracts adventurers, kayakers, sailors, nature lovers and whale watchers every year between June and October.
Apart from tourism, the local economy heavily depends on agriculture and traditional artisan handicraft making; sectors where most of SPBD clients work.
While much of my first week in the Kingdom of Tonga was spent the discovering the country, its people and their culture, the second week here has been deeply marked by encounters and testimonies from women who struggle everyday to get out of poverty.
During one centre meeting, the centre manager, an internal auditor and I were greeted by the centre chief who insisted on reading a small introduction she had prepared in English. In a moved voice, she explained to us the situations that these women had to face before being a client of SPBD where it was often difficult to make ends meet. She introduced to us the different businesses that the women present at the meeting had developed thanks to micro-loans: weaving mats, making the Ta’ovala (the Tongan traditional woven mat they wear on top of wrap cloth skirts to show respect and authority), and cooking or baking to sell to relatives, friends or villagers.
As a final point, this lady wanted to thank SPBD, on behalf of all the women of the centre, for having given them this new opportunity and for having encouraged them to develop their own business and support their families, without being dependent on the labor market.
Woman weaving the traditional mat.
My meeting with Ema Vea, a client of SPBD, and her son has also been important to me, and an encouragement for the development of our renewable energy project.
Ema and her husband have 4 kids - 4 boys who are still students. For them, it means that they spend most of their income on their education. Here, a semester costs 300 Pa’anga (about 150 AUD). By multiplying that sum by four, you can easily understand the burden for a family with limited income.
As a business, Ema is making Ta’ovala on request, for her friends, relatives, or people from the village. This is quite a tedious and long work, as it takes about a week to only make a simple one, and two weeks for a more complex ta’ovala. Due to a serious health problem, she is sometimes unable to work, so her husband is helping under her instruction. Her husband grows crops for eating and sells to the market if there is a surplus. He also works for others on temporary tasks when necessary.
Due to their low income, they have a restricted budget and can’t afford electricity in the house. Which is a shame according to Ema: “My boys are smart; they should be given the opportunity to study hard, especially when they came back from school. But how can we help them when we don’t even earn enough money to pay for electricity?” She hopes that in the near future, with the help from SPBD, she will be able to buy some solar lanterns for the whole house, in order to have free energy and not to be dependent on battery lamps.
Ema and Moui, one of her sons.
