Recently several leaders and missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visited the Republic of Nauru to provide education and training to Nauruan community members, including local Latter-day Saints, for growing and cooking vegetables.
Diabetes is a major health issue in Nauru (as it is in many Pacific Island countries) and a local group called ‘Nauru Home Garden’ and several government officials and their families were the recipients of the humanitarian service.
The visit combined leadership training for local volunteer leaders with a humanitarian service project for members of the Nauruan community.
John Larkin, President of the Marshall Islands/Kiribati Mission of the Church, led the visiting delegation.
He was accompanied by Iotua Tune, First Counsellor in the mission presidency; Elder Skibbe, a humanitarian senior missionary; and Gideon Lang, a Marshall Islands Church member and local gardening expert.
Nauru’s climate is quite harsh and the soil is not ideal for many vegetable types but fortunately during the last 12 months, Elder Skibbe and Gideon Lang have tested many vegetable seeds imported from all over the world—and have successfully identified the best seeds for use in environments similar to Nauru.
Mr Michael Aroi, Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Nauru, was attending the training with his wife, along with other government officials.
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One of the activities included construction of a key-hole garden at the home of one of the government officials (see photo).
This was followed by a cooking demonstration in which Nauruan community members were instructed by Elder Skibbe. The cooked vegetables were sampled by all participants who gave an enthusiastic “thumbs up”.
To the surprise of parents, young children not only sampled the scrambled eggs mixed with vegetables, but they came back for seconds!