Tracey with her friend Roger who helped start her adventure in Vanuatu. Photo / Supplied
A chance encounter at the Lil Orbits mini doughnut trailer led to a life changing opportunity for one Hawke's Bay woman.
Last year doughnut trailer owner Tracey Parker met an RSE worker from Vanuatu called Roger.
"He wanted to buy sausages from me, which I didn't sell, but from there we got to talking."
Parker had a trip booked to Vanuatu already with her family but also wanted to help out some of the local schools in the area as she had connections to get cheap wholesale school supplies.
"I did a bit of research while I was over there and talked to Roger also about a possible school to help out and that was how I found Green Hill School."
Green Hill School is a small remote school on the island of Tanna. Many schoolchildren walk an hour each way to the school up on a hill.
Parker last month went to Vanuatu, taking various books, clothes and other schooling supplies to the school that she contacted by reaching out on a local Facebook group.
She said that just giving these kids the simplest of things like a calculator makes them completely happy and over the moon.
Along with the donations she took over, she also has a shipping container heading to Vanuatu that will take with it boxes of nursing books donated by EIT for hospitals and clinics, as well as simple necessities for pregnant mothers and also basic building materials for locals to use for homes and buildings.
Parker says she is only a small part of the great work already been done by various other charity organisations in the country.
"I just fell in love with these children and the people and want to do the little bit I can make possible and it makes it easier with the great help from the local community here helping out.
"They even offered me a house to stay and live in and I do have to say it was very tempting because they are just such lovely people."
More than 300 properties across Hastings and Napier were deemed Category 3.