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Pago Pago, American Samoa— The Vanuatu Civil Aviation Authority says it is working to ensure domestic flights, which have been suspended since May, can resume this month.
Acting Director Wilfred Makeba told local media they are aware that the crisis at the national airline is affecting the people of Vanuatu.
He said they had been working with Air Vanuatu’s liquidators, EY, to obtain official aircraft and crew records.
Air Vanuatu’s domestic operations will only be allowed to resume once authorities confirm that civil aviation safety standards are met.
Earlier this week, one person was killed when a plane operated by Vanuatu Air Taxi crashed into a plantation near the capital Port Vila.
The company’s licence has been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation into the incident.
(Pacific Radio New Zealand)
Samoa Police Drug Testing
Samoa police officers will be the first public servants to be drug tested, possibly as early as September this year.
Police Commissioner Auapaau Logoitino Filipo supported the idea and said they were refining internal policies to enable officers to carry out this important check.
Drug testing of law enforcement officers and other government officials has been a hot topic in Parliament, with MPs urging leaders to lead by example and make drug testing mandatory, the Samoa Observer reports.
One of the issues under scrutiny is the cost of conducting the tests, which is said to cost up to T100 per test.
Last month, a prison officer at Tanumalala Prison was charged with possession of methamphetamine after he tried to hand a sealed bag of the drug to another prison officer.
When asked who will fund the drug testing, Aapao said it will be paid from their budget and they have received confirmation from local doctors that they can conduct the testing.
(Pacific Radio New Zealand)
Snapchat founder visits Papua New Guinea
Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel just visited Bougainville, an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea.
Spiegel, the world’s youngest billionaire in 2015, is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who fought alongside U.S. troops in a major battle on Hill 700 in Torokina during World War II.
He arrived last week aboard a superyacht and spent two days with the local community, The Mail and Courier reported.
Spiegel, whose net worth this year is $3.1 billion, according to Forbes, donated $1,000 toward the new Torokina High School.
In the battle for Hill 700 in March 1944, Japanese losses were reportedly heavy, with U.S. troops counting over 300 bodies in the area.
(Pacific Radio New Zealand)
Land diving in Vanuatu
This week marks the last dive of the season at one of the famous Nangole land dive sites in the village of Ratapu, south of Pentecost Island, Vanuatu.
The men jumped from a wooden tower about 20 to 30 meters (66 to 98 feet) high, with two vines wrapped around their ankles.
Tourists flock to the southern part of Pentecost Island to watch the ceremony.
A travel agency says it has seen a significant drop in revenue this year due to the Air Vanuatu crisis.
This season, the tourists they receive all come on yachts, and there are only more than 20 yachts.
(Pacific Radio New Zealand)
Human skeleton found in Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
After the discovery of human bones, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Public Safety plans to seek help from the FBI.
Two sets of human remains were found in northern Saipan.
The Historic Preservation Office determined that one set was consistent with the World War II era.
However, one incomplete set of bones appeared to be less than 20 years old, and officials were unsure whether they belonged to one or more individuals.
The Department of Public Safety wants the FBI’s help in conducting advanced laboratory analysis to provide a clearer picture of the investigation.
(Pacific Radio New Zealand)
New Zealand Healthcare
Fourteen children from four Pacific countries will receive life-saving paediatric heart surgery in Fiji this month through an innovative initiative under the New Zealand Medical Treatment Scheme (NZMTS).
This year, children from Samoa, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tuvalu will be treated in Suva under the ‘Uto Bulabula – Healthy Heart’ programme.
Funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and coordinated by the Pacific Medical Association (PMA) Group, the ‘Uto Bulabula – Healthy Heart’ initiative will see 35 doctors, nurses and technicians from the Hearts4Kids Foundation New Zealand travel to the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital in Suva to provide vital cardiac care to children as young as seven months old.
It will be the largest mission in the history of the New Zealand health program, which has provided life-saving care to people in Pacific nations for more than 30 years.
PMAG CEO Debbie Sorensen said the “Uto Bulabula – Healthy Heart” program was developed after discussions with partner countries identified gaps in regional healthcare that required a regional solution.
“When we asked each of our Pacific partners about their priorities for funding allocation under the NZMTS program, most of them told us there was a huge need for paediatric cardiac care. But they also recognised that it was very expensive to bring children to New Zealand for cardiac care.
Dr Kirsten Finucane, formerly head of paediatric and congenital heart surgery at Starship Hospital and Auckland Hospital, will lead the Hearts4Kids volunteer medical team, which has been treating children in Fiji since 2014.
She described how the ‘Uto Bulabula – Healthy Heart’ initiative will help Heart4Kids expand its impact across the region with a Pacific-led approach.
“It has always been our dream to try to get children from other Pacific countries to come to Fiji for treatment. This project has huge value.
(TP plus)
Tonga Coastal Resilience Project
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board has approved a grant of US$22.66 million to the Tonga Coastal Resilience Project, with the Tongan Government co-financing US$1.2 million and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) contributing US$63,000.
The initiative aims to build long-term resilience and transformative adaptive capacity of vulnerable coastal communities in Tonga to the immediate impacts of climate change and is led by the Climate Change Division within the Tongan Government’s Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC), with support from UNDP.
The approval of the project marks an important milestone in Tonga’s response to climate impacts and builds on Tonga’s Joint National Adaptation Plan 2 (JNAP2) on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management (2018-2028) and Tonga Strategic Development Framework (TDSF) II (2015-2025).
Key elements of the project include strengthening knowledge, capacity and participation in integrating climate risks into long-term adaptation planning through multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder engagement and dialogue platforms, and the development of participatory climate risk-informed plans at village and district levels.
In addition, the project will strengthen national and local capacities to effectively monitor and assess climate risks. The project will also implement coastal protection measures in vulnerable areas such as Haqq to mitigate climate hazards.
Indirectly, this coastal resilience project will impact almost the entire population of Tonga, providing the Tongan government with better climate adaptation tools and strategies. In the long term, decision-making in land use and development planning will be improved to reduce vulnerability to climate hazards, while strengthening the capacity of communities to manage and adapt to climate risks.
The approval of the Tonga Coastal Resilience Project is in line with Tonga’s national priorities and contributes to global efforts to advance transformative climate solutions in the most vulnerable regions, highlighting the commitment of the Green Climate Fund and UNDP to support Small Island Developing States in addressing climate change.
The project is expected to begin implementation in 2025.
(United Nations)
human trafficking
Fiji still does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.
While Fiji is making significant efforts to combat human trafficking, the U.S. State Department’s latest trafficking in persons report states that more needs to be done.
The report found that children are at risk of being forced to work in agriculture, retail and other industries.
Rising poverty levels are also a problem that has led to the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Fiji.
“Some Fijian men reportedly married Nepali and Pakistani women and used them as domestic workers in Fiji,” the report states.
Fiji’s human trafficking reporting level has been downgraded to Level 2, meaning more work needs to be done, fijivillage.com reported.
(Pacific Radio New Zealand)
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