Agricultural training to reap benefits for Belaha Community

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In the rural setting of Lungga, members of the Belaha Community are currently attending a series of Agriculture Short Training courses as part of the Community Benefit Sharing Project’s (CBSP) Technical and Vocational Education and Training Component. The tailored courses, which will run over 3 days, are designed to upskill locals in the Tina catchment with a focus in the agriculture sector to be job ready for any future opportunities to earn income from farming. The workshops, which are open to all benefit share communities and will eventually train all eligible members, will cover topics such as nursery production, compost training, …

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SIG supports landowner partnership on Tina Project as a new way forward for local business

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The Buhugaro Tribe, one of the five landowning groups of the Tina Core Land Owning Company (TCLC), have purchased a new vehicle for commercial use as part of a partnership agreement with the Solomon Islands Government’s Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification (MMERE) and the Tina River Hydro Project Office’s Community Benefit Sharing Project (CBSP). The vehicle, which costs more than $400,000 SBD, is currently being leased to the CBSP team for 14 months and is a great example of the Project taking community ideas on-board following consultations with landowning tribes during the Project’s preparation phase back in 2010. During …

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Team work on the Water Supply Project makes a dream come true

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Traveling long distances to fetch clean water will soon be a thing of the past for the people of Marava, Ngongoti and Valele communities in Central Guadalcanal with the installation of the first water supply system now underway. The system, which is funded and coordinated by the Community Benefit Sharing Project (CBSP) for the Tina River Hydro Development Project (TRHDP), comprises a network of distribution pipes carrying water from a determined natural water source to storage tanks and then onto communities. In a first of its kind for the region, the system is powered by solar energy to move water …

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Health and Hygiene Awareness for Tina Communities

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A three-day community Health and Hygiene awareness program has been completed in communities in the Mbahomea region of Central Guadalcanal.  The session were a part of the Gender Action Plan (GAP) initiative for the Tina River Hydro Development Project which has been running for the past 2 years alongside the preparation phase of the larger Project. GAP is in place to promote equal opportunities for both women and men to participate and receive projects benefits and continues to provide opportunities for women, in particular, to be involved with and be positively impacted by this nation-building project. Women and young girls in …

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CBSP’s WASH Project will start soon

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A one-day pre-construction consultation for a new Community Benefit Sharing Project (CBSP)water delivery system was held yesterday for community members of Ngongoti, Marava andValele in the Bahomea district of Central Guadalcanal. The construction and installation of the community water infrastructure, officially known asthe Water Supply and Sanitation Project (WASH), is a subcomponent of the Community BenefitSharing Program (CBSP) to provide water supply to eligible villages in the Tina catchmentcommunities. Construction will include a network of pipes to carry the water from the source anddistributed to communities. The objective of the consultation was to help participants understandhow the water system will work. …

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Signing Ceremony will light up Bahomea Communities

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The Tina River Hydropower Development Project is delivering more power to the people in Central Guadalcanal after the official green light was given today for a 11lkV high voltage (HV) extension and 415V low voltage (LV) distribution network at a signing ceremony in Honiara. Communities will soon see their homes light up thanks to the much- anticipated Community Benefit Sharing Project (CBSP) which sees construction of a HV extension and LV distribution network running along the 9km road from Black Post leading up to the Tina community in the Bahomea Region. The signing of the formal collaboration agreement between the …

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CBSP supports 15 young people from the Tina River Communities to further education at SINU

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The Tina River Hydropower Development Project has partnered with the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) to enroll 15 students from the Tina River communities to upskill and train locals under the Community Benefit Sharing Program (CBSP). Starting next week and continuing into 2022/23, the students will be trained in certificate and diploma courses in fields such as Electrical, Plumbing, Business, Survey, Carpentry and Joinery, Environmental, Automotive Engineering and Secretarial studies. In a first-of-its-kind extension program, the students were identified and selected after attending the CBSP’s Pre-Employment Training which was made available to eligible members of the Tina communities. PET training …

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Tina Hydro PET training hits a new milestone

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Attending the Community Benefit Sharing Project (CBSP) Pre-Employment Training (PET) has given 40-year-old Salome Matesaia from Tina Village an opportunity to become employed. Mrs. Matesaia is one of the early participants who joined the first PET training in April this year. Currently, 152 eligible individuals from the Tina River catchment communities have taken part in this program and have trained to be job-ready for the Project construction phase. She described the training as an opportunity to assist people in the community to find ways to earn money for themselves. “I am employed, by Hyundai Engineering Co. Limited (HEC) on the Tina River Hydro …

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Tina Hydro gets the green light

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In a historic moment for the Solomon Islands, the Tina River Hydropower Development Project has overcome its last major hurdle before construction can finally commence on the much-anticipated SBD1.5 billion renewable energy project. It has been a long and challenging journey for the flagship project with the preparatory and planning phase spanning over a decade. After a year of drafting by the Project’s holding company Tina Hydro Ltd. (THL) and its construction partner Hyundai Engineering Company (HEC), Environmental and Social Safeguard Management Plans (ESMPs) were approved by financiers last week, overcoming the last major hurdle before work can finally commence. With …

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Pre employment training commences for communities in the Tina River Catchment

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Last Monday morning after months of preparations, the first group of 30 participants joined the Community Benefit Sharing team from the Tina River Hydropower Development Project Office and facilitators from Pasifiki HR for a weeklong Pre Employment Training (PET) program. The Human Resource initiative is a component of the Community Benefit Sharing Project designed to support the members of communities in the project area in accessing employment opportunities to be created by Tina River Hydropower Development Project. The inaugural group, made up of 15 men and 15 women, were selected from a database of 700 plus people identified in the …

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Community water supply soon to be flowing from Tina

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The Community Benefit Sharing Project (CBSP) team are out in the community this week initiating preparations for the construction of water supply systems under component 2a of the program. It is the final preparation work required before actual construction begins on this element of the Community Benefit Sharing Project worth an estimated SBD $6 million. This month several days will be spent in the communities updating residents on the agreed water designs and discussing any final community input. The team, including the CBSP community water engineer, a water consultant from the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification (MMERE) specialising …

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Tina River Hydropower Project promoting and mainstreaming gender in the Energy and Construction sectors

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International Women’s Day was honoured on Monday March 8, with members of the Project Office, Tina Hydro Limited and women leaders from the Tina River Hydropower Project catchment areas participating in a celebratory parade through the streets of Honiara. While International Women’s Day is day for celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, this year’s focus is on the theme #ChooseToChallenge – a theme that promotes “Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity and this year particularly, bringing a feeling of …

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Community Benefit Sharing Focus – History in the making

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The Community Benefit Sharing Program (CBSP) is gearing up to roll out three significant programs in the first half of 2021. With its dedicated team working within the Tina River Hydropower Project, preparations have already started for a number of initiatives to provide early benefits to affected community members and to prepare for the main project benefit sharing components in later project stages. The first phase, which is happening now to coincide with the pre-construction stage, include pre-employment training, construction of a 11Kva transmission line and rural water sanitation system. With the support of global experts guiding the team, the CBSP …

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Tina River Project surveys locals for pre-employment Project training

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Local firm, Pasifiki HR conducting the survey and registration of eligible locals from the Tina River Hydropower Development Project catchment area.  Surveys and registrations are being conducted over the coming 2 weeks for eligible locals from villages in the Tina River Hydropower Project catchment to create a database of those employment opportunities on the nation building renewable energy project. A total of 300 people will be targeted by the Community Benefit Sharing Project (CBSP) to be part of a pre-employment training starting next month, to help build local capacity to meet the demands of Project employment when construction begins. The initiative, …

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Training Empowers Women – Building skills for rural women in the Tina Hydro Project catchment

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Over 4 days, 90 women and girls from rural communities in the Tina River Hydropower Development Project catchment area participated in training designed to help them build essential job skills, be more job ready and have the ability to be a financial contributor in their family and community. The hands-on training covering 8 different skill sets was held in the Tina and Ngongoti villages in the Mbahomea region by the Project Office under the Gender Action Plan program. The training was focused on delivering a mix of livelihood and entrepreneurial activities covering cooking, sewing and machine repair, coral printing, tie-dye, baking, floral …

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Tina River Hydropower Project recognizes the contribution of local women on International Rural Women’s Day

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“As a woman, life in a rural community in the Solomon Islands can be hard. For me, I wake up early in the morning and walk for a long time and far distance to get to my farm. I need to get up that early in order to do my gardening work because it’s then that the heat is not as harsh from the sun.”   These are the words uttered by Christina Tony, a rural female farmer, as she stands in the middle of her garden in Areatakiki, a village in the Mbahomea Region, Central Guadalcanal. Her farm is located in …

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Tina River Project completes field surveys for the water supply community program

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In a major milestone for the Tina River Hydropower water supply program, critical field survey work for all communities in Bahomea, and Malango(Malatoha, Belaha), has now been completed with the project benefits set to positively impact approximately 5000 residents. It has taken three months for the Community Benefit Sharing Program (CBSP) team to complete the work on what will be the biggest water supply project installation undertaking of its kind in the country; with a multi-million-dollar investment focused on one region within Central Guadalcanal. The work to date has been guided by the initial WASH investment priority list produced in 2016 by the Tina River Project Office. This list was used to review the locations and come up with data that is now being applied to design and construct the actual water systems. The recent work …

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Tina River Project appoints HR firm to train locals ready for Project employment

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The Community Benefit Sharing Project (CBSP) is designed to enhance the positive impacts of the Project to the communities in the area by investing in basic services and infrastructure and to foster support and cooperation from the communities. Benefit-sharing is an approach adopted by the Project to promoting sustainable development for affected communities which extends beyond the life of the actual project. Under the Human Resource Development component of the CBSP, Pasifiki HR, who are a well-established and reputable firm based in Honiara, will meet this objective by helping members of communities in the Project area access training and employment opportunities created by TRHDP.