Heartfelt donations

Donation: Cpl Jo Neilson presents Sister Serena with donated funds. Photo by Michael Brooke

By Michael Brooke

TROOPS deployed to the Solomon Islands as part of Combined Task Force 635 have done a lot to win the hearts and minds of the local population.

For example, they have dug deep into their own pockets to help local charities such as the Christian Care Centre, a women’s refuge that provides shelter for local women abused by their husbands.

CTF 635’s Chief Clerk, Cpl Jo Neilson, is the main force behind efforts to help the women, who would otherwise struggle to feed themselves and their children.

Cpl Neilson has collected donations totalling $2000 in Solomon Islands currency to keep the women at the refuge fed and clothed. She said the donations came from spare change she collected from RAMSI personnel who rotate back to Australia.

“I really enjoy helping those in need but my greatest concern is that no one will take my place to help these women when I rotate home at the end of the month,” she said.

The shelter’s deputy supervisor, Sister Serena, said if not for the generosity of CTF 635 soldiers, the women at the refuge would be relying on a tattered old fishing net and their farming abilities to survive.

Coalition soldiers also recently delivered 1500 books to the Solomon Islands National Library. Capt Guy Barnard, Cpl William Cook and Cpl Neilson helped soldiers from Tonga and Fiji deliver the books that had been donated by the ACT Library Service to the Honiara Public Library.

Acting Minister of Education Augustine Taneko said the books were a welcome addition to the library as it had suffered from a lack of resources during the extended period of tensions.