Vasaro’s historic victory come as quite a surprise
By EDDIE OSIFELO
THE only female Member of Provincial Assembly for Choiseul Province, Florence Vasaro has described her victory in the recent election as “quite a surprise”.
This is because Choiseul, known as Lauru, is a male dominated culture or society.
Speaking to Island Sun from Taro yesterday, Vasaro believes it was God’s timing that opened the hearts of her people to choose her as their MPA.
She said this is history for ward 5, Babatana, for the people to choose a woman as their provincial leader, as all along men had represented them in the Assembly.
“As someone new to politics, I am a bit scared.
“But I will work closely with my people to promote the Bottom-Up approach to allow service delivery to them,” she said.
Vasaro has no higher education qualifications.
She was a former water and sanitation field officer for Oxfam in Gizo, Western Province.
She was also the Women Coordinator of United Church in Gizo.
After her husband retired from Our Telekom, they returned home, where Vasaro was heavily involved in community work by joining the water supply committee, health committee and church building committee.
She was also empowered by the training programmes initiated by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP’s) SIEC through the Strengthening the Electoral Cycle in the Solomon Islands (SECSIP) in 2012.
Also, she joined the trainings organised by Women’s Rights Action Movement (WRAM), Solomon Islands National Council of Women (SINCW) and Provincial Council of Women.
Vasaro said these trainings have shaped her to become someone today in politics.
She plans to set up a Village Development Committee that comprise of different stakeholders and existing community leaders to work on identify priorities on how best to do better service delivery to the people.
Premier Tongoua Tabe, who represents the small minority group that settled on allocated land of Wagina in Choiseul, has selected Vasaro as the minister for Lauru Affairs.
Vasaro is responsible to look after the affairs of the women, youths and children in the province.
