In 2009 club member Leo Smith travelled to the Solomon Islands to provide, with other Rotarians from around Australia, assistance to islands devastated by the 2007 tsunami.  

 

Leo realised that remote villages had little or no basic services and decided that providing simple water and sanitation services, and medical aid posts, was a high priority.  Since then, Leo has organised 13 trips lasting around two weeks where 6-8 volunteers have travelled to the Solomons, at their own expense, and installed toilet systems (no moving parts) and  large water tanks in primary schools of remote island villages.  These installations have allowed school children to go to the toilet in privacy for the first time in their lives and wash their hands afterwards.  

 

In addition, the teams have installed solar power fridges used to store vaccines.  Again, for the first time, local nurses are able to administer vaccinations in these remote locations.  Nurse aid posts have also been constructed in remote locations allowing nurses to deliver babies in sanitary conditions and under lights at night.  

 

None of this could have occurred without significant support from:

• Leo Smith, who has masterminded this project from the beginning, at significant personal cost in time and finance.

• Other members of the Rotary Club of Mooloolaba who have donated time and money to this project.

• Members of Rotary clubs of South East Queensland and Sydney who volunteered to make the trips to the Solomons, at their own expense, do the work and donate funds to buy the equipment, timber and other supplies needed to do the construction.  These volunteers also pay for their own meals and other expenses while in the Solomons.

• The Rotary Club of Gizo who join with us to work on these projects, and entertain us in Gizo when we’re not out at remote islands doing the work.

• Kerry and Danny Kennedy of the Rotary Club of Gizo who allow us to store our shipping container of tools and equipment on their land.

• The Rotary Foundation from whom Leo has been able to acquire grants to supplement donated funds.

 

The latest activity on this project has been the replacement of much of the electrical tools in the container with new gear shipped from Australia.  Leo sourced funding for this equipment through The Rotary Foundation (TRF) District grants program.

 

Unfortunately, Covid has prevented us from making more trips to the Solomons over the past three years, but we are hopeful that will change soon.  Watch this space.

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If you would like to financially support our next trip to the Solomons please discover how at "Donate".