Seasonal work in the Hawke's Bay changed Kalter Kalsilick’s life.
In 2017 he came to New Zealand for three months on the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.
With the money he earnt he bought a drill to dig down to the water table so he could provide his family with clean safe water.
He told 1News that being focused about what he needs to spend the money on is key and if he goes back, he wants to earn enough to build a cyclone-ready house.
The Vila Futuna community in Port Vila found out first-hand how vulnerable their homes were when the country was hit by two cyclones in quick succession a month ago.
Community police officer Jeff Natapei says most of the homes lost their rooves and residents have put makeshift ones in place weighted down with sandbags, bricks and even plants until they can afford the materials for the repair.
"The damage is very serious in this village... When the rooves were being flown out in the cyclone they were up on top of the roof trying to fix it to minimise the damage," he said.
"It was very scary. We almost lost some lives but thank God the people are safe."
Cyclones are intensifying so mitigation is key – but that takes cash.
In the village of Pang-Pang, the RSE scheme has been the answer for many with more than a dozen households having a family member working on it.
Renee Lydia Wolul, whose husband is currently working in New Zealand, says it's meant a new home made from concrete and the children’s school fees are all paid.
New Zealand has recently made the biggest increase in a decade to the number of workers allowed here on the RSE scheme with the current annual cap at 19,000.
Vanuatu provides the biggest proportion of labour, having sent tens of thousands of workers since 2007.
The feedback from Vanuatu is the benefit to communities outweighs the sacrifices that families make being separated for months at a time.
One issue the New Zealand government is keeping an eye on is ensuring that Pacific countries are not stripped of their domestic workforce, which is why there is a cap on workers.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta, who has just returned from a trip to Vanuatu, says it's been good to hear and see the benefits of the scheme and consultation with Pacific countries is ongoing.
"Perhaps the conversation we might move ourselves towards is how can we ensure we have a reciprocal arrangement which benefits both countries but also that identifies it won't be a drain on the domestic labour market of our Pacific countries and perhaps that’s a space we need to be moving into," she said.
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