A Japanese volunteer who worked in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) for the last 13 months says safety has been seen in this country as minor.
Ayaka Kawano was referring to safety of people doing construction and other dangerous jobs.
“I have observed during my time here that almost all trades people and those doing other dangerous jobs never wear safety gears and it’s perfectly fine,” she said.
She said there should be tough regulations on this to ensure safety of workers and people.
“The Ministry is reluctant to enforce this vital rule, but I want to remind trades that it is important for their safety to wear safety gears at all times during work.
“Working barefoot or wearing slippers and no safety caps send chills down my spine when I see this happened.”
She said it might not be seen as important, but safety is important and given that there will be a lot of developments, these safety gears have to be worn even when the work is minor.
“As an encouragement to ensure this is upheld, I organized an awareness on this issue during my time at the MID, and handed out some 50 safety helmets to the Ministry.
She said she also held some in-house training every month with the ministry personnel.
Ms Kawano is Japanese International Cooperation Agency Volunteer who works as an architect engineer in Taro, Choiseul province in 2014 but last year moved to Honiara and work with the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID).
She said she really enjoyed her time here in the Solomon Islands.
“The friendly nature here and the beautiful country is something I will sorely miss when I return home next week.
Ayaka Kawano two other volunteers will return for Japan on the 23rd this month.
By LESLEY SANGA
