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Away from family,
helping wantoks
Captain Paul Pipingan's face lights up when he talks about his
wife and children back home in Papua New Guinea especially as he
has just celebrated PNG's 32nd Independence Anniversary away far
from his home province Manus in Solomon Islands helping his
wantoks.
While Captain Pipingan admits it is has been hard to be away
from his family this year - especially his three year old son.
who is too young to understand why he is not there - he still
feels lucky to be working with RAMSI, using his 12 years of
military experience to help such a close neighbour as Solomon
Islands.
"It is a great opportunity to work in Solomon Islands together
with three other defence forces: Australia, New Zealand and
Tonga," says Captain Pipingan
"The job of the military is to provide security so that the
Participating Police Force and civilian advisors can safely get
on with the work of building the capacity of Solomon Islands",
Captain Pipingan said.
Papua New Guinea has provided military personnel and police
advisors to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands
since July 2003 but more recently, experienced Papua New Guinean
civilians like Elizabeth Goodman, an accountant from the
Southern Highlands, have been working with the Solomon Islands
Government to develop the capacity of the public service to
deliver better services to the people of Solomon Islands.
Ms Goodman says she was at a crossroad before coming to Solomon
Islands - she had been offered work in Hong Kong as well as with
RAMSI.
"I chose Honiara over Hong Kong because I want to work with my
own Melanesian brothers and sisters", she said. "I want to share
the development experience of PNG. I come from a village
background and I know what it is like to start at the beginning.
"Every day is a different one, but the most important thing is
to get to know the people I am working with. That's how I can
find out what they want to do and how to build their skills and
systems to get there", she said. "People here are smart, we just
need to work together and share the struggles of development."
As Senior Papua New Guinea Officer within RAMSI's military,
Captain Pipingan has travelled around Guadalcanal, Isabelle
Malaita and he has also spent time visiting villages with the
RAMSI Outreach Team, talking directly to people about the work
of RAMSI and finding out more about the problems people face at
a grassroots level.
"Life is improving in Solomon Islands, but things can't be fixed
overnight. It takes time to develop and comes down to the hearts
and minds of people. Are people ready for change and are they
ready to work hard for a better future?
Elizabeth Goodman thinks so.
"I have no doubt that by working together we can improve Solomon
Islands and make a difference. It's about starting at the
beginning and putting the building blocks together, one by one",
she said.
Working with treasury officials in the important area of
government purchasing and payments where a lot of corruption has
occurred in the past, she says she really enjoys her work
because of her contact with people.
"You can find corruption in every government in the world, so
it's about strengthening the system - closing loopholes so that
it is difficult for corruption to happen", she said.
Bill Warake also knows a lot about working with people. He was
chosen to work with RAMSI's Participating Police Force because
of his long experience in community policing.
Mr Warake is currently working with the Solomon Islands Police
Force to build up their community policing program. He said foot
patrols are a key to rebuilding people's confidence in their
police force.
He said foot patrols were a good approach for police work.
"It works to build bridges between the community and their
police force; it creates a partnership and a network so that if
there is ever a problem, it can be solved by working together
with the community.
RAMSI Special Coordinator Tim George said last week that the
contribution made by the 15 Papua New Guinea currently serving
across all areas of RAMSI illustrates the benefit of RAMSI's
regional partnership, and was a key to the success of the
mission.
"On the occasion of Papua New Guinea's Independence Anniversary,
the people of Papua New Guinea can be proud of the work their
countrymen and women are doing to help a close neighbour", Mr
George said.
Sacrifices made by people like Captain Pipingan who are living
away from family to serve with RAMSI deserved special thanks.
"I would also like to thank the government and people of Papua
New Guinea for their continued support of RAMSI's goal to help
Solomon Islands become a peaceful, well-governed and prosperous
nation", Mr George said
Mr Warake said the response from the community to people from
other countries working in the Solomon Islands is very positive
and people appreciate what RAMSI is trying to do.
"Overall, people in Solomon Islands still want RAMSI to stay
because what we are doing is making positive steps towards
capacity building all sectors including the police force", Mr
Warake said.
"I love working in Solomon Islands because people are very
friendly and welcome us always. They accept us coming here", he
said.
What all Papua New Guineans in RAMSI have in common is that they
are sharing the unique experience of working together with the
14 other nations in the regional mission to help a close
neighbour become a peaceful, well-governed and prosperous
nation.
 
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