For example, she shares how VWC addressed the challenge of navigating through custom and culture, and provides useful tips on what has guided her as an organisational leader. Merilyn Tahi tells her story in Chapter 1, documenting the guiding principles, challenges and achievements over the decades: “All the steps along the way have been informed by our work with survivors.” Many lessons about strategy emerge from her reflections and from the contributions in other chapters – about the most effective ways to prevent and respond to violence against women, how to adapt the learning from overseas and innovate to suit the Vanuatu context (such as through setting up rural committees against violence against women), and how to build a strong and sustainable organisation that ni-Vanuatu have shown they trust and value. The book was edited by Merilyn Tahi and Juliet Hunt, and was recently launched at VWC’s 30th anniversary celebrations. VWC’s most recent publication, Thirty Years of the Vanuatu Women’s Centre: Her Story, documents the organisation’s journey through the memories and experiences of over 60 former and current staff and supporters. By November, VWC held its “curtain raiser”: Vanuatu’s first 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence campaign. They returned from Fiji inspired by the First Pacific Regional Workshop on Women and Violence, organised by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC). These three remarkable women were Merilyn Tahi, the Coordinator of VWC until February 2021, Elizabeth Mermer and Janet Saksak Boedovo. Three days later, the Vanuatu Women’s Centre (VWC) was born.

On 30 August 1992, three ni-Vanuatu women were on a plane back home to Port Vila, after attending a workshop in Suva with grassroots women from across the Pacific region.

Merilyn Tahi at VWC’s 30th anniversary celebrations and book launch ( Fiji Women/Twitter)

Her story download