It was a hot, heady night in the Vanuatuan jungle and something amazing was unfolding before Wayne Perkins' eyes.
An entire village had turned out to stage a concert of thanks to Mr Perkins and the other six members of an Alexandra contingent that had travelled to the island of Tanna to install a water pump for villagers and deliver innovative ''rocket stoves'' to improve the villagers' quality of life.
An excited crowd of villagers was almost throbbing in front of them, all carried away by the emotion and excitement of not just that evening, but by what had happened in the previous days and the impact the New Zealand group's actions were going to have on the villagers' lives from then on.
Wayne had never seen anything like it before. The villagers whooped, and they prayed, and they sang, and thumped their feet powerfully in dance before arriving at a play performed to give particular thanks for the water pump.
The women brought out an enormous length of bamboo that symbolised the heavy buckets they used to use to fetch water from a stream.
One woman carried the water-filled ''bucket'' as they simulated the long trek and heavy work they did previously to get water, then they handed the bamboo to Wayne.
While he was still holding it, the women then smashed the bamboo ''bucket''on to the ground.
There were hearts filled to bursting and eyes brimming with tears as the women turned to Wayne and said this:''Because of you, we don't have to do this [fetch water] any more.''
Several months later, that moment remains etched into Wayne's mind as he reflects on how the lives of those people on Tanna have been changed by having ready access to fresh, clean, pumped water.
One of those rare beasts, a genuinely modest person who has no desire to receive recognition for any acts of altruism he has done, he says he finds it difficult to be named publicly for projects such as the one in Tanna, but realises someone has to in order to ''spread the word'' about the charity that facilitated the venture.
So he has become a reluctant spokesman for its work, while at the same time refusing to accept any of the credit for resulting projects, and wanting others to be recognised for their part in the work that has been done so far.
Wayne is the instigator of ''It's Not About Us'', a charitable organisation set up early this year to foster and facilitate projects that will improve the lives of those in third world countries. The three-man team of Wayne and
fellow trustees Alexandra men Matt Born and Pete Scarlett,
is ''starting conversations'' with other individuals and groups in a bid to get to the root causes of poverty, knowing that providing access to water is paramount.
So that is where the charity's first project started, although the story of the Tanna project actually began more than a year ago.
Wayne would also prefer to sidestep publicity about the origins of ''It's Not About Us'', but acknowledges its genesis during a tough stage of his life when he was dealing with severe financial difficulties.
While navigating his way through those he had an epiphany: he realised that, however hard life may have seemed for him at the time, he still had his health, family and a quality of life while others elsewhere were suffering unimaginable third world poverty and hardship.
''And that's kind of how it all came about. I was thinking about how much tougher it was for other people and how I could maybe help them and then I realised that it wasn't about me, it wasn't about us; it's about what we can do to help others and that's how I came up with the name of the organisation, and decided to call it ''It's Not About Us''.
His friend Matt liked Wayne's idea of trying to improve the lives of people in undeveloped countries. Matt and his wife - both doctors at Dunstan Hospital - had years earlier volunteered in Papua New Guinea with VSO, the British equivalent of VSA. Matt offered to be a trustee on the charitable organisation with Wayne and they were joined by Pete, an Alexandra businessman.
''It's Not About Us'' was officially registered as a charity late this year.
The idea for the Tanna project - the first to be done through the charity - came about almost simultaneously with the concept for ''It's Not About Us''.
Wayne was coming across more and more Vanuatuans in the Alexandra district through the Government's Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme and was struck by how good-natured, hard-working and humble they were, accepting of their simple lifestyle back home and determined to earn money to take back to Vanuatu to help their communities.
Many of the Vanuatuans did not have running water in their villages and Wayne realised he had the skills to help.
Wayne works for Dunedin firm EB Engineering Solutions, which had helped develop a self-powered water pump that required no fuel or electricity and was ideal for remote locations.
Through EB he had also come up with a version of an L-shaped ''rocket stove'' for the charity, that uses a fraction of the wood used to cook over open fires.
Wayne thought both would work on Tanna and so started gathering support for a trip there to take a pump and more rocket stoves (some had already been taken there by the Vanuatuans themselves).
Several people from the Alexandra Baptist Church came on board, as well as a group of others from Alexandra, to form a seven-strong contingent, including Wayne.
The trip in July this year was entirely funded by members of the group, including significant funding by the church.
Several key Vanuatuans also played a major role in helping it come together at the other end.
Joe Niko, Jeffery Amson and Josiah Yakon are all from Tanna and work each season on orchards and vineyards in the Alexandra-Clyde district.
All three helped translate and navigate bureaucracy in Vanuatu to facilitate the project and ensure the pump arrived on time and made it to Tanna.
Without their support the trip would not have been possible, and such local support will be vital for any future projects, Wayne says.
- Pam Jones
What to know more?
For more information go to itsnotaboutus.co.nz
