Kauma Adventist High School


Kauma Adventist High School is a coeducational Christian secondary school located on the island of Abemama, Kiribati, established in 1957. It is a boarding school operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Adventist mission headquarters for Kiribati, formerly the Gilbert Islands, have been located on Abemama since the late 1940s. An elementary school began there in 1955 shortly after the organizing of the first congregation in the mission.

History

Adventist church worker John T. Howse began the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Mission in 1947. He arrived via the church's newly appointed mission boat, the Fetu Ao, or the "Day Dawn". The mission's first church was organized in 1954. The next year a school began. By 1957, a boarding high school was established. The Fetu Ao traveled among the islands and brought students to the school. It did this up to the early 1970s.

Geography

The islands of the Gilbert chain consist of coral rather than soil. The highest point on most of these islands is less than above sea level. Agriculture is quite limited. The main crop is coconuts. Abemama is a small "C"-shaped island which encircles a lagoon. The school is located in view of the ocean and the pounding of the surf is part of school life.