Alexandra-based aid organisation ''It's Not About Us'' trustees Wayne Perkins and Dr Matt Born, both of Alexandra, along with volunteers Tim Lerew and Murray Booth, of Alexandra, and Joel van Riel, of Wanaka, recently returned home from a 10-day trip to the archipelago nation.
They took two chainsaws and water pump equipment, bought with funds raised by Alexandra residents at a concert staged in March this year after the cyclone devastated Vanuatu.
Along with other fundraising in Otago and Southland, about $20,000 was raised.
Mr Perkins said the 10-day trip was ''fairly intense''.
The aim of their trip was to restore water supplies in villages and teach residents how to use chainsaws and use fallen trees to build their own structures on the island of Tanna.
The group had experience and expertise with water, and self-powered water systems which did not need fuel or electricity, Mr Perkins said.
''Over there, there's water, but it's never near the villages or very seldom is it close to the villages,'' he said.
With residents' help, they installed a self-powered pump which provided water to a community of about 250 people and a processing factory.
The cyclone had wiped out the coffee crops, the island's main source of income, and the water allowed the factory to process peanuts to create income until coffee bushes grew again.
The chainsaws were donated to a co-operative organisation made up of many villages, and residents were taught about safety, maintenance and skills, with many milling their own timber and building their own structures.
''The impact on the community was huge,'' he said.
''You see people just breaking down into tears.''
The organisation had only spent one-third of the money raised and was planning more aid trips to other islands of Vanuatu.
All members paid for their own airfares and personal expenses.
It was the organisation's fourth trip to the country since 2013.
Many groups went there, where unemployment was at 97%, and built structures for residents and then came back and showed people what they had built, Mr Perkins said.
''We can say we actually didn't do much - but look what they did.''
The organisation's philosophy was to give the islanders the dignity of doing things themselves, he said.
''The world doesn't revolve around us, life isn't about us. There's a bigger picture out there.''
