Six young skilled Australian Youth Ambassadors arrived in Tonga on October 3 to work in a range of development areas.

They are the third group of volunteers for the year, and include two men and four women assigned to work in education, environment, health, governance, gender and rural development for terms of three to 12 months starting on October 16.

The new group includes Nicole Butcher, a Health Promotion Project officer assigned to the World Health Organisation (WHO); Alexandra Kirkham an editorial trainer for the Tonga Chronicle; Sophie Mackey an NGO Development Officer for the Tonga National Youth Congress; Nardeen McKenery a Community Development and Welfare worker for the Salvation Army; Owen Doyle a Graphic Designer for the Health Promotion Unit of the Ministry of Health; and Michael Henry a Database and Network administrator for the Ministry of Labour, Commerce and Small Industries.

At present Tonga receives three separate groups of AYAD volunteers a year arriving in March, June and September.

Since the AYAD program started in 2001 there have been 51 youth ambassadors placed in Tonga. At present there are 16 volunteers including two groups that arrived in Tonga in March and June and the new group that arrived this month.

Funded through the Australian Agency for International Development AusAID, the AYAD program aims at strengthening mutual understanding between Australia and the Asia Pacific as well as making a positive contribution towards development.

Upon arrival the volunteers held an in country orientation program which ended on October 11 with Linda Hill as the Orientation Coordinator and the Assistant In Country manager, and the Tonga Community Development Trust as the In Country manager of the AYAD program in Tonga.