4th Anniversary of charity orientated website to aid and inform of the Solomon Islands.
It was just over 4 years ago in March 2015 that I finally launched my website www.solomonislandsinfocus.com in an effort to aid several organizations in the Solomon Islands, especially the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MoHMS), the Hearts of Hope Charity, the Solomon Islands Christian Care Centre, the Family Support Centre, the Solomon Islands Council of Women, the Association of Persons’ with Disabilities, Read, the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau (SIVB) and to illustrate, with a view to promotion and sale, the beautiful wood carvings that are an essential means of earning a living for the talented and skilled local craftsmen belonging to the Artists Association.
In keeping with the desire to help boost tourism to the Solomon Islands and the struggling economy I was fortunate from the onset to have been given help from the SIVB and to be able to link-up with their website and intended visitors need only to click on my website to view what the Solomon Islands has to offer.A similar click on my website puts those in touch, both internally and externally, to the SIBC, the Solomon Star and to the detailed website of Solomon Airlines.
In the past 4 years the interest of viewers and readers accessing my website on line has exceeded all expectations with thousands and thousands of hits from people across the globe, including many would-be business people wanting information about business opportunities in the Solomon Islands, from volunteers wishing to help the MoHMS as doctors, nurses and care workers, but also from many wanting to know how to buy the craft products the website illustrates.
I could say my proudest achievement in creating the website came when I was able to link up with ‘Take My Hands’ (TMH) Charity Trust in New Zealand and this partnership resulted in containers of medical equipment and supplies being sent regularly to the National Referral Hospital (NRH). The supplies included hospital beds, mattresses, bed sheets, wheel chairs, crutches, walking frames and other items of mobility equipment.
TMH also managed to send more than 90 large boxes of second-hand clothing and foot wear to the needy orphans and elderly widows being cared for on a daily basis by the dedicated volunteers of the HOH Charity on Malaita.
TMH is now in the process, after a scoping exercise recently undertaking, to determine how best to continue helping the Solomon Islands with training support in the medical field and possibly with advice and practical help in the maintenance of medical equipment.
My website continues to be updated, daily, with news and events of interest to the outside world and often serves to give advance notice of local news because the lack of broadband internet services, particularly of late, has meant that local newspapers have not been able to regularly upload their daily stories and have them archived.
As my website is attracting high numbers of hits via Google’s first page, external interest in the Solomon Islands is facilitated instantly.
I will continue to promote my website in aid of the Solomon Islands as long as my health pertains and not just to foster information, but to help generate donor aid and to encourage those willing to volunteer their services to good causes.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short