St Joseph’s Tenaru in ready mode to host Team Solomon

The handing over of the St. Joseph’s Tenaru refurbished buildings is special as Tenaru is the designated games village that will host the Solomon Team.

The handing over today involved the Prime Minister as the Minister of the Pacific Games 2023 who received the keys of the refurbished buildings from Australia High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, His Excellency Rod Hilton. 

The Prime Minister then handed over the keys to the Tenaru Deputy Principal Jeffrey Ogamauri and the Archbishop of Catholic Father Chris Cardone.

The refurbishment work covered 10 buildings, one ablution block, three two story classrooms, two single story classrooms, four girls’ dormitories and two 10,000 liters water tanks.

The upgrade work at St. Joseph’s Tenaru involved 300 Solomon Islanders as employees, these included 15 local contractors, 10 carpentry companies, two electrical companies and three plumbing companies. 

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare urged Solomon Islanders to take care of infrastructures that are donated to us.

PM Sogavare admitted that as a country we are good at receiving donated infrastructures, however, we have not taken seriously the responsibility of looking after the infrastructures.

The Prime Minister calls on everyone to take care of the donated infrastructures and appreciates them as these gifts are funded by taxpayers from the donor countries. 

Referring to the occasion of the handing over of the refurbished Tenaru school buildings, the Prime Minister stated that he is delighted to be to witness our final handing over ceremony of all facilities upgraded and refurbished by the Government and people of Australia. 

“For that I wish on behalf of all of you to say thank you to the Government and people of Australia for their support in upgrading and refurbishing the facilities here at St Joseph Tenaru”. 

PM Sogavare added that he has the confidence that the environment and surroundings at Tenaru will offer a conducive environment for our athletes to train and win medals.

The Prime Minister commended the Catholic Archdiocese of Honiara, School Authority, Principal, staff and students of St. Joseph Tenaru for allowing the institution to be used as of the six games villages.

The Prime Minister further extended warm gratitude and appreciation to Australia by stating that Australia remains the main development partner not only in infrastructure development, but also in areas of health, education, security, justice, private sector development, governance, and people to people connection. 

PM Sogavare acknowledged that Australia’s commitment to ensure Solomon Islands will successfully host the 17th edition of the Pacific Games is deeply appreciated.

The Prime Minister stated that the Games has pulled the nation together, there are also challenges along the way but together with bilateral and development partners the preparation has gone well to ensure we successfully host the Pacific Games 2023.  

The Prime Minister strongly remarked that the preparation to host the Games is a collective effort, “we are all in this together”.

“The legacy we want to leave behind starts here with all of us. Let us unite our people and our nation together with our positive contributions,” PM Sogavare concluded.

The tickets for the Games have been launched this week, and tickets are now available for the general public. A ticket booth is set up in front of Our Telekom main branch and other sites to follow suit.

The Official Opening of the Pacific Games 2023 will be on the 19th of November.

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Prime Minister’s Press Secretariat