Last week the Island Sun newspaper published details of youth leaders from Guadalcanal Province having undertaken three days of leadership training aimed at grooming the youths to have good leadership qualities
The training was hosted and funded by the International Republican Institute in the USA
Janet Tuhaika, the General Secretary for Solomon Islands National Council of Women, said the idea was to train the youth leaders to help them to become good leaders in all settings.
“We need to groom new leaders because young people are the new people to take over leadership positions. They need to be groomed because we Solomon Islanders sometimes have a no care attitude on things but leadership is very important because leaders make decisions which affect the lives of people.
“It doesn’t matter at what level. Leaders if they are mentored as to what makes a good leader we hope we can groom people with potential to become better leaders in the future,” she said.
Melinda Kii, programme officer for the International Republican Institute in the country said the training was to encourage youths networking around the provinces where the training is implemented for them to work together from the village level to their community, ward level and provincial level
Ms.Kii said provinces were identified because they have existing provincial youth councils. The training was also deigned to engage youths of civic awareness in terms of their rights and engagements especially on leadership.
Twenty-six-year-old Esther Tangithia from Longu in Guadalcanal said she was grateful to be part of the youth leadership training because it would help her to motivate her fellow youth members in her community on how to become a good leader in all walks of life.
“Also this training will help me see and recognise the challenges leader’s faces in all setting and how they are managed or addressed. At the same time the training will help me groom my skills to become a good leader in the future,” Ms Tangithia said.
The same training was already conducted for Western Province youth leaders and the second training was carried out in Malaita.
The next training course will be for Choiseul youth leaders.
In separate news, the MAI-MAASINA Green Belt (MMGB) group which consists of conservationists, including several youths from Malaita province, recently completed a look and learn trip to conservation associations in Western and Choiseul provinces.
Eddie Huitarau from Solomon Islands Rangers said the look and learn trip was organised to provide an opportunity for various conservation reps affiliated under MMGB to visit protected areas and to obtain and enhance perspectives on the working context made by the Sirebe Tribal Association.
He said the Babatana Rainforest Conservation Project and the Sirebe Tribal Association had made history by becoming the first landowner groups in the Solomon Islands to commence trading under a forest carbon project.
.Mr. Huitarau said that the Mai-Maasina Green Belt was proud to be the first environmental organisation to visit and look and learn from the Sirebe Tribal Association.
He said the trip activity was supported and funded by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund – with a small grant and implemented by MMGB, focusing on looking and learning about activities at conservation sites with Protected Area status and declaration.
Mr. Huitarau described the trip as a worthwhile opportunity that brought substantial information for MMGB Conservation rangers.
He said the knowledge and skill obtained from the trip will definitely boost the visiting team to get maximum benefit so as to further their conservation aspirations.
One of the visitors, Alick Kingz of Kira a Tribal Chief and MMGB Elder said the trip was an eye opener and he thanked MMGB for organising the learning trip as well as CEPF for funding.
He also acknowledged the Solomon Islands Rangers office for facilitating the basic rangers training on site.
Mr. Kingz said technical skills obtained from Siborae Conservation rangers were beneficial for the visiting team.
“Though we are only coming from behind we sensed that this trip really creates in us the belief that we are not alone as far as rangers are concerned. We are a member of big conservation family determined and with one common goal,” he said.
Another member of the team Joyce Kauraena shared similar sentiment saying that the technical skills learned during the trip were new for her especially the basic skill of forest inventory readings and calculation to find the cubic stand of one’s own tribal land.
She said she had learned lots of things but one thing that stood out was the importance of having biological and species baseline data knowledge of one’s own tribal land.
This training was timely and relevant and with the information provided she felt that her work would improve, Ms Kauraena said.
The CMMGB Chairman Max Totorea applauded the NRDF, Gizo office for accepting the request sent by the MMGB office to assist them with the trip’s activities.
“Your support means a lot for the eight conservation groups who are in a Protected Areas process.
“I think it’s good to learn from Sirebe’s experience so that we do not repeat the same challenge and at the same time we learn from them”, he said.
The eight conservation association which travelled under MMGB were the Ahetaha Water Conservation, Baru Conservation Alliance, Kira-Takataka Tribal Conservation, Ora Tribal Conservation, Po’otori People’s Foundation, Raripaina Biodiversity Conservation, To’okina Tribal Land Conservation and the Wai-Hau Conservation Foundation.
Source – Island Sun newspaper.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
www.solomonislandsinfocus.com
