The Iriri Seventh-day Adventist Church and Community in North Kolobangara Island, Western Province. The church members are to be now able to welcome visitors and guests to their community, following the official low profile handing over of a new sanitation project to their community on Wednesday, 11 September August 2024.
The sanitation project was officially handed over to the church and community by the Country Director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Solomon Islands, Mr. Leyn E. Gantare.
The Iriri Sanitation Project was funded by the South Pacific Division (SPD) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia, the Disaster Ready Church (DRC) Project. The water and sanitation facilities include two toilets—one for males and one for females—as well as a shower room.
This project supports three SDA communities in the Solomon Islands namely, Zion SDA Church in Central Honiara, Gwanasu’u SDA Community in North Malaita. and the Iriri SDA community in Kolobangara Island in Western Province.
The project, which spanned one year from May 2023 to May 2024, aimed to equip local church members with essential skills for making informed decisions about emergency management plans and to improve church facilities to be user friendly to people with disability and special needs during the event of disaster when people are displace and used the church as temporary shelter.
The handover was delayed due to community and project-related work commitments until Mr. Gantare’s visit to the Western Province this week and made the low-profile handover of the project to the church and community.
During the handover, Mr. Gantare acknowledged that the project’s completion was made possible by the faithful offerings of church members in Australia, with close coordination with ADRA SPD.
“It’s their faithfulness to God that provided the offerings. Now, the church members of Iriri and visitors to this community will benefit from this sanitation project’’
“This is also an answer to your prayers, as I see sanitation was a major need for the church and community, and God has graciously made this project possible for your church and community,’’ ADRA Director said during a brief handover of the sanitation facility to community.
However, Cyril Elijah, the Head Elder of Iriri SDA Church who received the key to the sanitation facility from Mr. Gantare, expressed his gratitude to the SPD office in Australia and ADRA Solomon Islands for their support in completing the project.
“On behalf of the community, I would like to thank the SPD office and ADRA Solomon Islands for funding this important sanitation project for the Iriri SDA community and church’’
“We had been praying for this project, as sanitation has been a critical need for both the church and community. This project will greatly help us in welcoming visitors to our community and during our church services, ’Mr Elijah said when he gave his brief remarks during the handover of the project.
However, The Iriri community, through their church board, will soon decide on the official start date for using the new sanitation facility after ADRA officially handover the project to the church.
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-ADRA Communication
