Crown Princess Mary of Denmark visits Vanuatu
Crown Princess Mary of Denmark keeps cool in a blue maxi dress as she visits a remote community in Vanuatu ahead of her return to native Australia
- The Danish royal, 51, visited the Etas community on the island of Efate
- READ MORE: Princess Mary of Denmark, en route to her native Australia, touches down on Vanuatu to meet victims of the Pacific region’s recent cyclones and earthquakes
Crown Princess Mary of Denmark has visited the Etas community in Vanuatu, a nation made up of a collection of islands in the South Pacific.
The mother-of-four, 51, undertook the visit as part of her trip which encompasses the island nation as well as Fiji and her home country, Australia.
Mary, who is married to Crown Prince Frederik, wore a navy blue maxi dress with long sleeves and a lighter blue floral print as she met with the Etas community members.
She wore her thick brunette locks down and hanging past her shoulders in loose curls and opted for simple pearl teardrop earrings.
Throughout the day, Crown Princess Mary was shown around the community and stopped off for a refreshing drink of coconut water along the way.
Crown Princess Mary of Denmark visited the Etas community on the island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific where she learnt about schemes to improve the lives of women
While visiting the community, the Princess learnt more about an EU-supported scheme on the island which aims to support women in the most vulnerable areas of the nation, carried out by the ADRA organisation.
The Etas community is a small settlement who are based on the main island in Vanuatu, called Efate. They live just outside Port Vila.
As most members of the community are not recognised as part of the official workforce, much of their income is derived from their roles as litter pickers.
About 8.5km away from Port Vila is the the Bouffa landfill, which contains tonnes of single use plastic waste.
The Danish royal, 51, sipped on some fresh coconut water to cool off during her visit to the community
The Australian-born royal visited the Etas community, on the island of Efate in the nation of Vanuatu
Crown Princess Mary met with people from the relief organisation ADRA to hear about the work they’re carrying out to support women
The Etas community has long performed the unofficial role of sorting through the waste dumped in the landfill to retrieve materials like plastic bottles, glass and scrap metal that can be recycled.
Some people collect spare parts of machines or electronic devices, which they then repurpose to use within the community.
The United Nations Development Programme’s Accelerator Lab Pacific team has spent time on the island of Efate where they have conducted research in to the Etas community.
Crown Princess Mary’s visit to Vanuatu will also shine a light on how the island nation is protecting itself from the harmful impacts of climate change.
Vanuatu has faced ruin after it experienced two cyclones over a two-day period at the beginning of March and was also hit by two earthquakes.
As Crown Princess Mary met with members of the Etas community, she was gifted a beautiful bunch of flowers
The Etas community made sure to make the Danish royal feel welcome as they also offered her a necklace
The Crown Princess wore a navy wrap maxi dress with lighter blue floral print and wore her brunette locks hanging down her shoulders
The Danish royal smiled as members of the community showed her around where they live, on one of the largest islands in Vanuatu
The Crown Princess will learn more about the initiatives to help women, before she heads off to Fiji on the next leg of her royal tour
As she touched down in the nation yesterday, the glamourous royal, accompanied by the Danish Minister of Development, Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, Dan Jorgensen, wore a white long-sleeve blouse, flowing patterned maxi skirt, sapphire-coloured over-sized earrings and sandals.
She also sported two gold necklaces, one with the initial F on it and another one reminiscent of a coin, and wore her hair loose, with natural makeup.
The Princess made her way around the island, speaking to different people, including Hon. Ralph Regenvanu Minister of Climate change of Vanuatu, who explained the effect of sea-level rise on those who live in costal communities.
Following her time in Vanuatu, Mary will move on to her scheduled visit to Fiji, where she will focus on how the destruction and evacuations in the wake of climate change result in increased risk of sexual and gender-based violence, and how the health care system works to protect women and girls in vulnerable situations.
Princess Mary will finish her trip in Sydney, Australia – her home country.
This event will be truly special, as it is the first time Princess Mary will travel to Australia in an official capacity in a decade.
The Hobart-born royal, 51, will be returning to her home country on April 28 to meet with Danish representatives that are involved in Australia’s ‘green transition’ while also visiting several Danish-led projects related to sustainability.
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