The Lifeline branches in the Pacific are all well established but have followed different directions over the years.   Lifeline Tonga expressed concerns over the rates of suicide and the impact of deportees in addition to the health issues HIV and AIDS.  Samoa appeared to have similar problems but with a greater focus on relationships.   Fiji focussed more on face to face challenges and difficulties in re-establishing a centre in Suva.   The issues common to each country were a strong belief in the value of Lifeline, declining pools of volunteers, effective telephony platforms, funding and a strong desire to work co-operatively within the Pacific.    

All members agreed on establishing a regional collective owned by the Pacific Basin members.   The name Lifeline Pasifika would seem to best suit this collective body.  Work is underway on a draft structure paper, constitution, networking project plan, operational standards, technology paper and data set paper. These  should be made available for consideration before the end of the year.   

It was also confirmed that members, through their own networks, would explore the opportunities to work with a common telecommunications platform.  Members will also look at skill based routing and language or ethnicity based routing to the caller’s country of origin from a single base or from a network of bases.
Readers are asked to consider if they can assist  with technical knowledge of connecting the main Pacific Islands together – telephony wise – as cost effectively as possible.  We need to consider set up costs and operational costs.  

 If you have ideas or would like to assist please send me an email.  Thank you.  bryanw@lifeline.org.nz