This is the map of Solomon Islands.
"I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullest!" Jn 10:10.

We were in Guadalcanal Island, Honiara the Capital City of Solomon Islands.
We had to take the good News of Education For Life to Solomon Islands after the visit of Bishop Kevin from South Africa.
We come to these Islands to share with them what are the challenges facing the Church in South Africa that is HIV/AIDS.

Guadalcanal is one of the major Islands.
There are very few people who are HIV/AIDS positive in Guadakcanal and the Solomon Islands. We do not need to first have a big number to start educating the youth about HIV/AIDS.
We need to respond now.

This is Solomon Islands. I hope you visit it one day.

When you are in Solomon Islands you may think that you are back in Africa.

The Coconut plants are very common trees in Solomon Islands

The group from Education For Life on its way to Solomon Islands for the workshop for the Youth on Values, Attitudes and Behaviour Change Process.  
We are grateful to Caritas Australia and the Parish of Tullylish in Northern Ireland who made it possible for the Education For Life Team from South Africa to fly to Solomon Islands.

This was our house where the National Team was accommodated -  a lovely home.

This was the welcoming banner for the workshop of E4L in Solomon Islands. Education For Life is based in the Southern African Cathlolic Bishops office
in Pretoria, South Africa.

This is the national team from South Africa in Solomon Islands, with Archbishop Smith of Solomon Islands.
We are also grateful to Sr. Able who co-ordinated the workshop Adam
from Caritas in Solomon  Island.

This is the National Team of Education For Life from South Africa.
We thank them for their sharing of knowledge with the youth of Solomon Islands.

Sr Bernadette With Emme thinking of the next move

We had two workshops and each one had about 45 participants from the three Diocese of Solomon Islands.

Sr Bernadette Duffy with Nosipho from Kwa Zulu Natal  ready for the workshop.
We need to use the youth to share their lives with each other.

Sr Bernadette Duffy with Fr Joe  going through the Education For Life programme Book to make sure that we are on the right path. We sisters and priests need to support our youth as they face the reality of the present situation of HIV/AIDS.
We cannot leave the youth alone.

To be able to bring about the best in the workshop of Education For Life you need to be ready to sit down for hours to do plan work before you go out.
That is what we do before and after each workshop.

One of the participants of the Workshop sharing their challenges of life during the workshop. They youth of Africa and Solomon Islands have got  common challenges. Education For Life gives them the opportunity to explore, to face and to act on them. So that "they may have life to the fullest". John 10:10

How do these challenges make  you feel?

Group work is one of our methods of working with young people. The youth have got the answes to their challenges. What we do in E4L is to believe in them and in thier inherent capacity to change.

We need to act on what we have recieved if we are to fight HIV/AIDS. The youth are facing the pandemic and they need to change. This is the most essential tool to develop human growth.

Youth in the Solomon Islands are ready to answer the initation of our Lord Jesus to live thier lives to the full potential in total freedom from the evils of this world.

Sisters too have a lot of modern challanges to life and they need to support one another by calling on the spiritual powers to change.
Praying together over our challenges gives hope and joy.

We have to stick to one another so that we may give support to one another in Education For Life.
This is the National team from South Africa

Fr Joe and Sr Bernadette sharing their findings about the workshop

e need to act out our lives so that we may know what we need to change.
A lot of youth face peer pressure, media influence and substance abuses.

Participants durining the workshop.
This was an opprtunity for them to open up and talk about life in their homes, schools and places of work.

Sr Bernadetta and Genii whom we have trained to become a co-facilitater of Education For Life in Solomon Islands.

In Education For Life Programme we use a lot of drama and plays to drive a point at home. They youth learn alot by actining out thier lives in drama

Archibishop Smith of Honaira in Solomon Islands with some of the participants of E4L workshop. We do thank the Archbishop for his care and interst in the youth.

We all need to be forgiven and set free once again. Education For Life helps the youth to know that they need to  change, they have the capacity to change, to believe others can change and to be able to call on the Spiritual powers to change

We need to be loved and cared for. With Faith in Jesus and our family, things can be better. The  youth of the world are in a great need of healing.

Emme durining the workshop giving an input to the participants

We do thank the priests from Solomon Islands who sent their youth to the workshop. We need the support of the Bishop, priests, sisters, youth workers and their parents to make sure that we all need a national effort to bring about the best in our youth.

They Archbishop Smith of Solomon Island makes a point that we are all sinners and we need to be forgiven. That is what Jesus did to the women caught in adultery

We can all change our bad attitudes and behaviours in life. Meskhe gives a demonstration of this reality by using water as a sign that we can be better people in life.

Archbishop Romero is the man whom we can look up to; who was able to die for his values. In Education For Life we help the youth to be able to stand up for what they believe in to be true. They need the Church's teaching on values, attitudes and behaviour .

Education was a key challange to the youth in Solomon Island. We need an Education to be able to change our lives.

Time for thanks -Sr Bernadette Duffy reiieves a gift from the participants of Education For Life for her good work in the Solomon Islands.

Bishop Chris gave us a very warm welcome into his Diocese of Auki. He is a Bishop for the youth. He know and understands their challenges of today  We called upon the youth of his Diocese to promote Christian values that enhance our lives so that we may live our lives to the fullest. For me as a visitor from South Africa I saw a lot of potential in the youth of Solomon Islands.

Bishop Chris of Auki Diocese receving the cross from the Archdiocese of Honaira. It was a great joy for us as a National Team from South Africa to go to Solomon Islands at the same time as the cross and the Icon of Mary were  recieved by the Youth of the Islands. The cross and the Icon were given to the Youth of the world by the late Pope John Paul II. They are both a sign of hope in us and a call for a new life. Thus we were very happy to share in that welcome of the cross.

We do not only need the mothers to take care of thier children we also need the father to take part in the family life.

We did not only focus on the youth but we had time off to talk to the little children of  Solomon Islands. This children are full of joy - you can see it on their faces.

The National Team from South Africa - Education For Life - had to take time off to participate in the joy of the World Youth Cross on its way to Auki Diocese. We took six hours on the sea but it was too short! All night we were praying and sharing what they Lord had done for us and the young people of Solomon Island.

We are all born beautiful in the eyes of God
These are young girls from the Solomon Island with a lot of hope and wishes for their future lives.  They hold their flg which had hope, peace, joy and prosperity in it.  They need a deeper relationship with God through prayers and the Sacraments.

We are the youth of the big world, we need to be able to face the big world together.

We do not only need our mothers to take care of us as children.
We also need our Father to help our mothers to bring the positive values to us.

Support one another is one of the best key in Education For life.

We were weclomed by the traditional music of Solomon Island. Just like in Africa, we need music to communicate our positive messages to others.
Music is life.

The Solomon Island girls dance like us in Africa.
We really enjoyed the dancing and the music in the Solomon Islands

We need our roots.
Without your roots you are like a tree without roots.

When we were having the workshop in the Solomon Islands, the youth said the big challenge was the loss of their cultural values.
We call upon all the youth of the world to hold on their cuture.
Without a culture you are lost and you have no roots.

We need to have money so that we may be able to face life. One of the best way is to have a small business selling coconuts and other products from the soil. Solomon Island is a rich country but a lot has to be done.

Bishop Chris of Auki  saying fairwell to Fr Ambrose, a priest from Honaira Archdiocese in the communication Dept.
Fr Joe and Nosipho from the National Team of Education For Life from South Africa on our way back to

We all need to go back to our homes one day. Fr Joe, Nosipho and one of the youth on their way back home from Auki Diocese.

We as the youth we need to be proud of our lives, the youth of Solomon Islands have got beautiful hair stlyes!
This is Edi and Fr Joe

Without a house you are not a man. That is what we say in Africa.  You become a man by having your own house. That is what we demonstrated in Solomon Islands.

In the history of Solomon Island it was not easy for the first missionaries to the Islands. They faced a lot of challenges from the local people. But today the local church has taken roots thanks to those first missionaries to the Islands.

Young people need to belong to a nation. This was very true in Solomon Islands. We too in Africa  - we are Africans - we do not need to lose those values of life.

Education For Life programme  has no age limits no religion, no gender, no colour it is a programme that is helping the youth to face the reality of the present life so that they can come up with thier own solutions.

We need to keep up our sound values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour that are compatable with the Gospel.

We had a wonderful time on the beach of Solomon Islands. It gets very hot and the only safe place to run to is the sea. That is what we did.

You cannot go to Guadalcanal and miss out the chance to test the coconut. 
That would be a sin!
Fr Joe and the family of Chris on the beach having time off the work.

That is the Archbishops office in Honaira Holy Cross in Guadalcanal.

Bishop Chris of Auki ready for the Holy Mass of the Youth with the Cross and the Icon of Mary from Rome. We wish you the best in your pastoral work, Bishop Chris, and we hope that the Education For Life Programme will add joy to you and your youth in the Diocese.