She’s a proud Solomon Islander who says she could have never dreamt about coming from the South Pacific to New York: our Ocean Witness Rindah Melsen! We’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Rindah at the Healers of the Ocean event in New York.

So Rindah, what does the ocean mean to you?

The ocean means a lot to me. All the wonderful fish and coral are my favorite things. We have to protect the oceans and all the marine resources in the South Pacific, so that the future generations are still able to see all that lives in the ocean.

What has changed since you’ve started the savings club?

Since we’ve started our saving clubs a lot has changed. Normally, we mainly go and get fish like salmon in the sea to sell at the markets. But when we started our saving clubs, we started to protect the marine resources like fish and turned to another alternatives. In our saving clubs, we organize workshops and teach our ladies how to sew, make fabric, paint, all sorts of activities like these. It reduces going to the sea and getting fish. We create other options, so we can protect our oceans.

There are many ocean witnesses. What would you like to say to them?

I would like to say to all my friends that it is time for us to protect our oceans, because if we don’t, our future generations won’t be able to see all the beautiful things in the ocean.

About Rindah Melsen

Rindah Melsen lives on the Solomon Islands and she’s the president of the Nusatuva Women’s Saving Club. The Savings Club enables women to save income from running micro-businesses to secure necessities for their households. They are able to restrain from using the ocean as their main source of income. Ever since their establishment in 2004, the initiative has flourished. They started off with a group of five women, whereas now there are 64 members saving their way to ocean sustainability.