The Federation is governed by a voluntarily board consisting of 5 members and on ground staff running the programs day in and out. 

VAF President Nancy Miyake

After leaving VAF in 2017, it is with great honor that I returned as President of Vanuatu Aquatics Federation in 2023 to guide the federation through the next era of development.

I give a very special thank you to the outgoing leadership from previous the President, Ivan Oswald, for his willingness to volunteer an immense amount of time towards the governance of the federation. Without his passion for open water swimming, events and logistics coordination, we could not have run the amount of domestic competitions that we did during his leadership.

We also bid farewell to outgoing board member Eslyn Kaltongga as General Secretary, and Yves Watt, a founding member of VAF, who completed consecutive terms on the board as the Technical Director. Eslyn was an incredible support for our teams as they navigated international travel arrangements, ensuring our teams save travels to events. Yves also provided support on site across his two terms, and was one of our first members to become an open water swimming official. His passion and sound decision making have been of great value to the federation, and we are grateful for his years of commitment.

Kimberly Valentine served as her final year as treasurer this year, and we will be sad to see her go. Nicholas Howlett continues to serve on the board of directors. We welcomed Maxi Snell as General Secretary, and Allan Kalfabun as Marketing Director, who have contributed a fresh wave of ideas into the federation and also welcomed Joanne Austin as Technical Director for 6 months. We thank Joanne for her time on the board and her enthusiasm and support for the overseas events in 2023.

Finally, VAF sends a very big tenkiu tumas to Wan Smol Bag. After 8 years of partnership, Vanuatu Aquatics and Wan Smol Bag closed their incubator model partnership to allow the federation to grow in reach and operations. Over the past 8 years, Wan Smol Bag supported the growth of Vanuatu Aquatics, not only hosting the organization but also was a key implementing and leading partner in the Pacific Sports Partnerships and Team Up programs through the Australian Government, which enabled VAF to reach communities outside of Port Vila. The incubation support from WSB allowed Vanuatu Aquatics Federation to grow it’s technical capacity, building a knowledgeable pool of instructors. This foundational pool of knowledge has enabled the federation to emerge from the incubation phase, and operate independently. We are forever grateful to the entire team at WSB for their years of support.

Looking into the future, we are thrilled to work with the Vanuatu National Sports Commission, and thank them for welcoming us at EXFOL. Our time there has been well spent, with development programs emerging in new communities, and 6 athletes attending international meets, including the debut of our first female swimmers at World Championships, South Pacific Games and Commonwealth Youth Games.

I look forward to 2024 with our team of emerging leaders within VAF and national and junior teams, and wish our next generation of swimmers, divers, artistic swimmers and water polo players all the best in the development of their athletic ability.

Warm wishes,

Nancy Miyake, President

Staff Profiles

Anna John: 

The finance and human resource manager looks after the budgets of the federation and ensures that they are being used for programs as accomplished through donor guidelines. The job role also is inclusive to her duties as a human resource manager in which she looks after staff ensuring that they adhere to contract job descriptions and VAF policies. 

Anna is proud because she was able to coordinate her role in managing budgets throughout the working year and provide that activities are delivered as expected. She also looks forward to learning and growing more in her role. 

Louisa Kalman Pedro:

The programs coordinator facilitates administrative operations, tracking the budget and overseeing activity work plans and ensuring that the target audience are also being included within activity plans. The programs coordinator also overlooks on creating partnerships with other schools and communities to expand program reach.

Louisa is proud that all 2023 activities have been delivered successfully and that she has received positive feedback from schools in relation to programs. She looks forward to another successful delivery of programs in 2024. 

Glenda George: 

The development facilitator role involves leading discussions with other colleges to improve the standard and logistics of classes. A major part of her role is delivery of programs in the primary schools and around communities. She delivers the Mama Aqua Aerobics class as well as the Learn to swim program and Spiderball. As part of her role she also supported reports by updating thumbs up reports.

Glenda says an aspect of her work that she is proud of is being able to work with young girls and mama’s. She likes it because she gets to help develop skills such as leadership a specific example being the Mama Aquatic classes.

Relianna: 

The assistant DF helps to provide safe and effective swimming lessons with guidance from the development facilitators. They also run the swimming lessons alongside the development facilitators. 

Relianna is really proud that their students have been progressing from the skills that they have been taught.

Natasha: 

As a development officer I am happy to be able to work with childeren in a different type of sports in the water. 

This year I am proud of the accomplishment of having been able to deliver programs to young children and mamas in urban and rural areas and I look forward to empowering the communities more next year through the Swim Splash Survive Program. 

Dorian: 

I love my job, to be able to work with children and teach them how to survive in the water and play fun games is a thrill. I enjoy working inside the water, as a pacific islander I have always been around the water having a job that involves being in the water makes it exciting. In my role I support the Development coordinator in the classes and I learn a lot as well. 

Nerolyne Kapapa

The evidence and impact officers’ role is to media and communications work as well reporting work. The role entails going out into the field to collect photos, conduct interviews and support the monitoring and evaluation process. 

Nerolyne is proud to be able to be apart of shared goals with partners and slowly working towards accomplishing them. Working as a team to provide equal opportunity to women and girls and advocating in the VAF platform for an inclusive community. 

Our Contact Details:

• Phone Number: +678-7735011/5486813
• Email address: swimming@vanuatuaquatics.com

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