By EDDIE OSIFELO

THE Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) stands ready to benefit the country’s economy and food security for students in schools.

Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR) Permanent Secretary, Dr Christian Ramofafia explained this when asked by Member of Parliament for Temotu Nende, Commins Mewa, on the long-term benefits of Tilapia, during the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament last week.

The PAC was enquiring into the 2023 Appropriation Bill 2022 budget, tabled by Minister of Finance and Treasury, Harry Kuma recently.

Mr Ramofafia said tilapia is not a popular part of the diet for Solomon Islanders, especially this tilapia they are planning to import.

He said it is a new brand tilapia called GIFT tilapia, not yet in Solomon Islands.

“It’s not the small tilapia we have here.

“It is a very unique fish, demanded overseas and high level too,” he added.

Furthermore, Ramofafia said the country has an opportunity to export the GIFT tilapia.

“Arrangement we put in place is to work with every farmer to grow the fish hub, improve to market level and so that we can export.

“For us, we see it as very important opportunity for our people to engage in economic activities,” he added.

Apart from export, Ramofafia said their intention also is to work with schools to give them a little bit of protein in terms of fish.

“Otherwise, they eat noodles all the time.

“That one is important protein security for our schools,” he added.

MFMR recently completed a laboratory and hatchery facility at Aruligo in north west Guadalcanal.

The GIFT tilapia is a result of cross breed between tilapias from Egypt and Philippines.

It is also referred to as the Nile Tilapia species.

BY NED GAGAHE

Dr Jack Siwainao has repeated the call for the return of his daughters.

He thanks those who have helped him so far in making necessary contacts following his desperate call for their return.

“After the call for the return of my daughters, contacts have been made, I was contacted by some doctors from PNG and they made contacts on my behalf to the PNG immigration.

“Also undersecretary from the ministry of health, Dr Nemia Bainivalu also contacted the ministry of foreign affairs would liaise with the PNG government for the return of my daughters.

“Few days ago I have been contacted by one of my friend doctors and classmate in PNG, she gave me the contacts from National Family and Child Protection office in Port Moresby, PNG.

“So I emailed one of the doctors that represented National Doctors Association PNG and made contacts with the PNG Prime Minister.

“I was asked to write a letter to the Chief Migration Officer PNG which I made earlier last week. They said they will investigate and locate where my daughters are. Since then I haven’t heard from them yet.

“There is no reply on what has been done, where they are up to.

“I also forwarded my request and my documents to the National Family and Child Protection office in Port Moresby.

“I also copied them in an email to the Chief Migration Officer PNG. Since then I have not received any reply. Maybe next week I should get an update on where they up to.

“I think if you are a father if you put yourself in my shoes, you will know how I feel.

“I think it’s more than 70 days I have been like this, I am worried about my children because I have not heard from them.

“When their mother was alive we usually made contacts usually every Saturdays 4pm. I usually talked to my kids, this is their home.

“My children know their house, when I talked to them, they are attached to this house. ‘Daddy I want to come to our house’, My big daughter Mercy would say.”

Siwainao said he had built a nine-bedroom house here and the future of his daughters is here in the Solomon Islands.

“This is a very big house.

“I have built nine-bedroom house, I really want my children to come back and inherit what I worked for.

“I built two houses in Malaita province in my father’s village, and there was also another house also in a new location on holidays me and my children we often go there on holidays.

“We climb up the mountain, enjoy the view looking at Marau Sound, Guadalcanal, seeing Makira Province looking into the river.

“It’s a million-dollar view location and my children they know.

“Right under this house I am building a new clinic, a delivery suite and a pharmacy here and my big daughter Mercy knows that I am planning to build a women’s hospital, this is the beginning of it, hopefully next year we will kick it off.

“This is the future of my children. My children living PNG they don’t have a house living in Port Moresby they don’t have a house at Kairugu in Bereina Central Province where their mother comes from.

“They are floating. Their inheritance and possessions are here in Solomon Islands, and their mother knew very well what I have been building for them, that was why in January when I talked to her for the last time about our kids she said that if anything happens to her she asked me to go and take back the kids.

“Maybe those looking after our children now, or who are holding on to our children, they don’t know what my children have here in the Solomon Islands, being working as a doctor for the past 15 years, I worked hard for the future of my children, I want to give my children what my parents didn’t give me.

“I wanted to give them the best life possible, I really loved my children, we fathers we don’t show our love, we fathers we show how we loved our children by sacrificing for their future.

“Everything I have worked for, my National Provident Fund, my accounts are just for my two daughters, if anything happens to me, I know my children will have a good future and a better life.

“For the past six days I have not heard from them, I am really desperate to know if my daughters are coming soon and I am hopeful.

“On Monday after I made my call. I had a call from one of my classmates whom we went to medical school together in PNG doing undergraduate studies and masters.

“He is now a national member of PNG parliament, he told me that when he read my story he cried.

“He said he really sympathize with me, knowing that I served in PNG and moreover, being a dad of two daughters he was deeply moved by my story.

“After I made the call, that was the first time I have slept with a smile, all this time for the past two and half months I don’t sleep well at nights.

“I had respect for their mother’s family that I waited this long, I waited for those who are keeping my children to make contacts with me so that we can discuss the future of my children but nothing was forthcoming.

“That was why I made the call. I called upon the authorities of PNG, Solomon Islands High Commission Office in PNG, I want them to do something quickly as possible to return my children in the next one week.

“I have not received any letter from the government of Solomon Islands, I called for the Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, our Attorney General John Muria Jr to be involved in the return of my children.

“I have not heard any words from our government. The Government is silent about my daughters.”

BY NED GAGAHE

Dr Jack Siwainao says he has received threats warning him against going to PNG to bring back his daughters.

He made this revelation to Island Sun:

“It’s not safe for me to go because the situation was exaggerated and out of context, I felt like I was blamed for the death of their mother.

“I don’t know how to described it but I am broken-hearted, really missed my children, I haven’t seen them for almost three years and so many people they asked on social media why did you not come physically to PNG and take back your daughters, where were you all this time.

“After the death of my wife, I did not go because she was already living with somebody else, it would be disrespectful if I appear there when there is somebody there, I feel I was not accepted, I feel the situation was exaggerated.

“Why I didn’t go was because of safety reasons, I lived in PNG for a long time, and I know what PNG is like, I received a threat from the immediate family of my late wife, my late wife’s first cousin and adopted brother says that my daughter’s uncles and their step dad’s brothers are waiting for me.

“If I go to PNG they are waiting to harm me. That was the reason why I did not go and I am not going to go, that’s the reason I made that call because I could not go there physically.

“My wife she was diagnosed with high blood pressure since in 2012.

“This year is tenth year of living with high blood pressure. When it gets up to 10 years you don’t control it with change of diet and lifestyle you developed complications.

“I think her death is the result of uncontrolled high blood pressure that affected her multiple system organs.

“From our conversations I felt like I was blamed for her death, non-communicable disease is the greatest killer in the Pacific because of the change of lifestyle and diet.

“I believe my wife is a victim of this. When she was here, I was very strict in her diet.”

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

SOLOMON Islands is still a long way to ending gender-based violence.

That’s according to Education minister Lannelle Tanangada.

She was speaking last Friday at the launch of the 16 days of activism against gender violence.

“The bad news is, we are still a long way from achieving that lasting, fundamental shift including cultural shifts that will enable us to confidently say that gender-based violence against women and girls is not accepted in Solomon Islands and there are no excuses for violence  in whatever form,” she said.

Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Women Youth Children and Family Affairs Dr Cendrick Alependava adds that the 16-day campaign has now widely recognised, longest-running campaign for the rights of women and girls, and Solomon Islands is proud to continue to join this global movement.