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Conflict sensitivity training ends successfully

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Participants who have attended the conflict Sensitivity training to strengthen women’s leadership program posed with their certificate with regards to the successful completion of the training. Photos Vois Blo Mere.

BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO

Participants who have attended the conflict Sensitivity training to strengthen women’s leadership program posed with their certificate with regards to the successful completion of the training. Photos Vois Blo Mere.

THE weeklong workshop in recognition of the truth and to gain greater peacebuilding tools was successfully completed with participants awarded with certificates.

The key priority of this activity is to strengthen the position of women who are generally the voice of the voiceless, to strengthening their voice and capacity to articulate their issues in nation building.

The workshop covers topics and developed participants capacities in conflict mapping, mediation and negotiation and managing stress, trauma and mental health issues.

It covered topics and developed participants’ capacities in conflict mapping, mediation and negotiation and managing stress, trauma and mental health issues.

Speaking to the closing ceremony of the training Director for Vois Blong Mere Solomon Josephine Teakeni said, “to avoid violence, which is merely one possible outcome of conflict, it is better that we treat the cause and not the symptoms; we are all called to practice healing and be doctors of peace for the our family, community, region, nation and the world.”

Florence Swamy, the Executive Director of Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding, helped as one of the facilitators said “we want to support people, with practical tools, to take issues that are occurring at grass roots level and manage them in non-violent ways.

It was concluded yesterday with peace vigil lead by Vois Blong Mere Solomon Islands and addressed by Martha Horiwapu, Georgianna Sogote’e and Josephine

The workshop covers topics and developed participants capacities in conflict mapping, mediation and negotiation and managing stress, trauma and mental health issues.

The activity got its support from the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariats and the action was funded by the European Union.

YWCA ends weeklong training on rise up manual refresher

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Participants who attend the Rise Up Manual Refresher training.

BY ELLISON VAHI

Participants who attend the Rise Up Manual Refresher training.

THE YWCA on Thursday ended their weeklong training with graduates receiving certificates of recognition for attending the training.

Speaking during the closing and issuing of the certificates to the participants, training facilitator Ms Yvonne stated that she is very grateful with the participants for their time and effort for making it, and hopes trainers are fully equipped and well facilitated as they will go out to their provinces and train their own people on how to address related issues affecting women and girls now a days.

Yvonne also stated that the programme is also comprehensive as it helps to assist Instructors in revision of both theory and practicals of the manual handling operative programme.

“It is an intensive and highly interactive course which will equip the instructor with the knowledge, skill and competence to effectively evaluate delivery of their manual handling training programme and enhance personal skills,” she said

Yvonne further added that, seeing the successful running of the programme has encourages the participants to go out and help their communities in addressing issues affecting especially girls under the age 14-29 on issues affecting them but have never have the chance to voice them out, as a key to their mission, the YWCA is helping at fighting strengthening the capacity of young Solomon Islands Women to influence change, promoting and inclusive healthy environment for women to reach their full potential, promoting the value of partnership and network and as well advocating for young women in decision makings.

Biosecurity team to Malaita for rhinoceros beetle treatment

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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An image recently taken by this paper on a scapanist beetle destroying coconuts in Maoa area in West Kwaio. The villagers misinterpret it to be rhinoceros beetle but later were proved wrong.

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

AUKI

An image recently taken by this paper on a scapanist beetle destroying coconuts in Maoa area in West Kwaio. The villagers misinterpret it to be rhinoceros beetle but later were proved wrong.

A team from the Biosecurity and Quarantine department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock will leave for Malaita province for rhinoceros beetle treatment.

Research Officer under Malaita Agriculture Office, Mr Robert Tate’e made the statement in an interview with this paper yesterday.

He said the team will arrive in two weeks and go down to Takwa area in Lau region of north Malaita where the beetle was sighted.

Tate’e said the rhinoceros beetle was sighted in the area sometimes ago and recent report was that it continues to move to places in Mbaelelea and even to Malu’u.

He said it was an alarm for their office as this invasive betel species is very capable of swift dispersion.

“This is the fear we have now and possible control measure is very needed to ensure it stop the spread of the species to other parts of the province,” Tate’e said.

However, he said the work expected to carry out by the team on the beetle was a trapping method, this is by setting up traps for the betel.

Tate’e said as the team will introduce the method they will monitor the status of the beetle to see possible step to take if its status is beyond the method will apply.

He said according to report within their office this is the only site in the province has been sited and reported to be with the rhinoceros betel.

Tate’e said that recently there were also reports received from Maoa area in West Kwaio to have been sighted the beetle.

He said officers from Auki went to the site but dismissed the villager’s findings that the betel was not rhinoceros betel but scapanist beetles.

Tate’e said scapanist beetles are indigenous inhabitants of Solomon Islands and that they do not usually invade coconuts.

He explained that the reason they were feeding or damaging the coconuts was because whether they food were destroyed or they don’t have food in that area.

Peaceful community essential to develop capacities of peace

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO

DIRECTOR for Vois Blong Mere Solomon Josephine Teakeni says building peaceful communities a necessity to develop capacities for peace.

She said this during yesterday at the closing ceremony of the weeklong conflict sensitized training in Honiara.

Addressing the subject she said “building peaceful communities requires investment in building local capacities for peace through the provision of inclusive and reactive local government structures, mechanisms for peaceful contestants of electoral results and other government processes.

She said this is to ensure the participation of women in all mediation process for the peaceful.

Taiwan partnership enhances MECDM capacity and capability in early warning

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

ON behalf of the Minister and PS, we want to say thank you for this cooperation and we believe that there are lots of things that we will continue to work with each other to help our people in terms of being resilient to climate change.

The above statement was made by Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM) Under Secretary Technical, Mr Chanel Iroi who was speaking at an occasion hosted by the Taiwanese embassy on July 18th at the Iron Bottom Sound Hotel’s Dynasty restaurant.

He expressed that the partnership between Taiwan and Solomon Islands in the area of meteorology is the result of Taiwan’s assistance when the country experienced the 2007 Gizo tsunami.

Mr Iroi then emphasized that the recent signing of the MOU on Meteorology Cooperation which Taiwan and Solomon Islands signed in April 2017 is part of this cooperation.

He stated that the work Taiwan has done such as providing assistance through the team from National Taiwan University (NTU) and Central Weather Bureau (CWB) has and continues to build MECDM’s capacity and capability in terms of providing early warning services.

The Under Secretary also acknowledged Taiwan’s assistance to Solomon Islands when the country participated in previous climate change conferences.

“We will continue to assist each other in this area because we believe that every country has to play their part in reducing emissions”, he said.

Scientist from Taiwan National Unversity establish seven broad-band seismometer

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Professor Yue-Gau Chen from the Taiwan National University including one of his team member picture with staff from the SIMS during their visit.

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

Professor Yue-Gau Chen from the Taiwan National University including one of his team member picture with staff from the SIMS during their visit.

A team from the Taiwan National University have spent five days in the country to follow up on Taiwan’s project established 10 years ago.

The research project entitled as ‘Seismotectonics along the Subduction Zone in Western Solomons’ is about research and the team consists of scientists from the Taiwan National University.

The project was initiated 10 years ago between the Taiwanese Embassy and Solomon Islands Government due to the disastrous earthquake in 2007.

Since then they have worked closely with scientists from the Ministry of Mining, Energy and Rural Electrification of Solomon Islands and scientists from Academia Sinica.

Not only have that, the National Taiwan University of Taiwan conducted many field excursions over the past decade in Western province.

The Department of Geoscience, Professor Yue-Gau Chen from the Taiwan National University said a network of seven broad-band seismometer and 11 continuous GPS stations have been established over there.

He said this can help weather forecaster in the country understand the earthquake mechanisms and its behaviour.

“In this trip the investigator of the project join the work of SoSAFE to seek the possibility of constructing a larger observation network which can further upgrade the data utilization for hazard mitigation in a broader scale,” Pro Chen said.

“For this purpose the joint research team is going to visit National Disaster Management Office of Solomon Islands to discuss future collaboration on this specific issue,” he adds.

“For long-term maintain the observation systems for weather and earthquake, more related professionals are needed,” Prof Chen said.

Director for Department of Meteorological Services Mr David Hiba Hiriasia said, “What we are doing with Taiwan will hopefully enhance our weather system.

He also adds that with the system SIMs established partnership with Taiwan they wanted to integrate all system into one to maintain policy early warning system.

ROC Ambassador assures SIG of continuous meteorology cooperation

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Two delegations from National Taiwan University (NTU) and Central Weather Bureau (CWB)

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

Two delegations from National Taiwan University (NTU) and Central Weather Bureau (CWB)

REPUBLIC of China’s (Taiwan) Ambassador to Solomon Islands, Roger Luo has assured MECDM officials of that there will be more partnerships between Solomon Islands and Taiwan in meteorology and earthquake prevention.

He was speaking at an occasion on July 18 organised by the Taiwan embassy in Honiara for members of Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau and National Taiwan University (NTU) delegations and officials from the Ministry of Environment’s Meteorology department and National Disaster Management Office (NDMO).

In earlier remarks, ambassador Luo stressed that climate change is a very important issue, especially for Pacific Islands.

He stated that as true friend of Solomon Islands, Taiwan has long term cooperation with Solomon Islands in the field of meteorology and earthquake prevention, particularly in tsunami, earthquake and cyclone (TEC) and early warning system (EWS).

The ambassador expressed that it was back in September 2009 when Taiwan sent their first batch of specialist teams to Solomon Islands.

He added that since then, there have been a number of achievements like the Taiwan installed 10 GPS stations and 8 seismic instruments in the country for earthquake prevention.

Ambassador Luo said that in terms of weather cooperation, three auto-mode stations have been installed by Taiwan with three more to be installed this year.

He proceeded to stress that a signed MOU on Meteorology Cooperation between both countries in April last year signifies an important step in their cooperative efforts.

“Another important step for cooperation is that Taiwan and Solomon Islands signed an MOU on Meteorology Cooperation in April 2017,” said Luo.

On another note, he took the opportunity to briefly talk about the work of NTU and CWB.

Ambassador Luo said Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau delegation visited the Met station and NDM office in Auki and installed A900A seismometer in Auki while the NTU delegation on the other hand, travelled to Savo’s seismic station to review facilities and collect data.

He then assured that the Republic of China (ROC) Taiwan will continue to work closely with Solomon Islands government in this cooperative partnership.

“There will be other ongoing cooperation in this field. The embassy would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm Solomon Islands, based on the mutual cordial friendship that we will keep on working closely with SIG,” said Luo.

Taiwan central weather Bureau installs new warning system

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Team from the Central Weather Bureau with two employees of SIMS.

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

Team from the Central Weather Bureau with two employees of SIMS.

DUE to the long-term friendship between Solomon Islands and Republic of China (Taiwan), a MOU was signed to strengthen the meteorological and earthquake observation system in Solomon Islands.

Based on the MOU, an integrated project ‘Solomon Islands Synergistic Analysis for the Environment (SoSAFE) has been accordingly co-designed by scientists from the two countries.

Currently, weather scientists from the Central Weather Bureau in Taiwan are in the country to follow-up on the installed weather forecast and earthquake/tsunami warning and upgrade the instruments.

Scientists from the Central Weather Bureau, ROC (Taiwan) brought necessary technology to continue the mission for installations in Honiara and Auki.

For the meteorological stations, three new auto-mode and three semiauto-mode sites are planned.

The work is expected to complete this week together with help from scientists from Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, in Solomon Islands.

According to the team, they have 15 sets of dual seismometer A900 plus palert which are planned for the warning system of earthquake/tsunami.

From their trip to Auki in Malaita province, the team have a total of four to five seismometers set up in three target areas in Honiara and Auki.

With the assistant from the Embassy of ROC (Taiwan), all instruments have been shipped and arrived in Honiara, the team said.

Meanwhile, first collaborative phase, the project aims at setting up six meteorological stations and 15 seismometers distributed in Solomon Islands to optimize the capabilities of weather forecasting and earthquake/tsunami warning.

Solomons Western Province taking the lead in addressing gender and women’s issues

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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DEAR EDITOR, this week as Parliament was welcoming its newest member to the house, Ms. Lanelle Tagaganda, after her election victory in the Gizo- Kolombangara by-election in May, the Western Provincial Government was affirming its commitment to addressing gender and women’s issues with the launch of its first-ever women’s policy.

It was reported that the Western Province Women’s Empowerment and Transformation Policy for Development was a blueprint for the strategies, projects and programmes the province that can use to address obstacles that prevent women from nurturing their talents and fully participating as equal partners in provincial development.

Quoting from an article in the Solomon Star, in remarks during the launch, the Director of Women in the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs Pauline Soaki said the policy, which the Western Provincial Government Executive endorsed and was noted in the Provincial Assembly earlier this year, and was in line with the National Development Strategy2016-2035. The strategy aiming to achieve full gender equality by eliminating gender discrimination in the social, cultural, economic and political spheres. (Solomon Star)

“Indeed, the policy’s goal that women and girls are empowered to transform their status to improve their livelihoods and ensure full participation in the sustainable development of Western Province is bold, smart and compelling,” Ms. Soaki said.

“This goal, translated into eight strategic outcomes, offers many entry points for various stakeholders, including development partners, civil society, the private sector and academia, to work together with the Western Provincial Government on the interlinked pillars of social, economic and political empowerment of women.” Ms. Soaki added.

It is understood the policy also reflects the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which recognizes gender equality as a fundamental right and a driver of progress in achieving all development goals.

Again to quote Ms Soaki’s words. “This goal, translated into eight strategic outcomes, offers many entry points for various stakeholders, including development partners, civil society, the private sector and academia, to work together with the Western Provincial Government on the interlinked pillars of social, economic and political empowerment of women.”

I very much hope to see the early outcomes Ms. Soaki has envisaged could come about and I offer my congratulations to the Western Provincial Government for this long awaited initiative on gender equality and women’s issues.

Yours sincerely

Frank Short

A Live Band Concert to aid the National Referral Hospital (NRH)

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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DEAR EDITOR, I offer my personal thanks to the newly created Honiara Band Association (HBA) and to its chairperson, Benjamin Afuga, for the plan to organise a two-day live band concert in Honiara to raise money for the National Referral Hospital (NRH) this weekend.

It is known the fundraising event is intended to raise money to donate to the NRH so the hospital’s authorities can quickly purchase locally available medicine and drugs which have reported to be in short supply at the NRH at this time.

I commend the idea of helping the NRH during the reported critical shortage of drugs and medical supplies.

I very much hope the live band concert will be a success and achieve the objectives intended.

I would also like to thank all the participants taking part in the two-day fund raising event and the RSIPF for allowing the Rove Police Club to be used as the venue.

Yours sincerely

Frank Short

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