RTT - MEI PACIFIC PROJECT

Mission:

To raise awareness and contribute to the work of the informal group on victim assistance, environmental remediation, international cooperation, and assistance (Articles 6 and 7 of the TPNW), MEI and RTT Pacific have launched a project to engage with affected communities in the Pacific, encourage regional states parties of the TPNW to appoint focal points, and launch a social media campaign on the relationship between the TPNW and environmental justice. 

We are also committed to raising awareness about the TPNW to both affected communities and states not yet party to the TPNW.

We need to shift the discourse to human security.

This project is supported by the Ploughshares Fund.

Benetick Kabua Maddison, RTT Adviser and Executive Director of MEI

Meet Our Team

Benetick Kabua Maddison is the Executive Director at the Marshallese Educational Initiative (MEI), a nonprofit in Arkansas, where the highest concentration of Marshallese reside in the continental United States. Born in Majuro Atoll, Maddison migrated to the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas with his family at the age of six. His work at MEI includes raising the educational attainment levels of Marshallese residents. He regularly speaks about the ongoing consequences of the nuclear legacy and climate change on his homelands at conferences and events in the US and internationally. Benetick is also an Arkansas State University student pursuing a political science degree. Benetick is the project lead for the Youth for Nuclear Justice project, funded by Ploughshares, and is also an adviser for RTT.

  • Mere Tuilau

    CAMPAIGN MANAGER

    Mere Tuilau is an anti-nuclear advocate, human rights defender, facilitator, and youth leader from Fiji. Her professional engagement in advocacy spaces comes with over seven years of experience. As an advocate, she believes in the value of a people-centered approach whereby we connect people and build movements to determine the direction, autonomy and integrity of our region and global development, particularly regarding our strength to weave our struggles together on self-determination, socio-economic, climate change resistance, and nuclear justice. In 2017, her role expanded to coordinating and strengthening the Youngsolwara Pacific movement — a regional movement made up of Pacific students, artists, poets, writers, academics, and activists, who are passionate about safeguarding our Oceans and self-determination. Additionally, Mere Tuilau continues to support other youth groups such as the Disarm Pacific (Fiji chapter) with ICAN Aotearoa/ New Zealand through the strengthening of our collective work on a free and independent Pacific. In 2022, Mere Tuilau initiated the forming of the Pacific Youth for TPNW and led the conversation on our collective implementation paper at the 1st Meeting of State Parties in Vienna.

    As stewards of the vast Pacific Ocean, Mere Tuilau believes that we are called to safeguard, guide, and determine our destiny, as well as to navigate our narratives until we the people of Oceania are fully free.

    Jellyfish babies may have died as a result of the nuclear testing, however we believe their spirits and their voices are alive in us and in the ocean; the same ocean that birthed them is the same ocean rising to speak up for them. We carry the same spirit and voice as Oceanian young people to hold nuclear-armed states accountable and responsible for their crimes against humanity.

  • Franscine Anmontha

    SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR

    Franscine Anmontha Malieitulua is a descendant of survivors of the catastrophic Bravo Shot that was detonated in the Marshall Islands and is a strong advocate for nuclear justice. Franscine actively participates in the Utah Marshallese Association and assists the youth in her community. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Dixie State University.

    Franscine previously worked with the Republic of the Marshall Islands National Nuclear Commission as a Communications Officer where she designed a social media campaign to raise awareness of the nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands.’She hopes to build awareness of nuclear and climate change in the Pacific region through more civic engagements.

  • Claire Bartolome

    YOUTH CAMPAIGNER

    Claire Bartolome works as an advocate for her school’s community, while residing in Fiji and Australia. Claire is a member of Reverse The Trend’s Pacific branch, which works on initiatives that promote a range of social causes and elevate the voices of young people. These projects address modern challenges in the Pacific, such as climate change and nuclear weapons..

  • Maverick Peter Seda

    YOUTH CAMPAIGNER

    Maverick Peter Seda is a Solomon Islands-born youth activist who formerly served as Secretary for the Interim Board of the Guadalcanal Youth Council. Maverick began his advocacy in high school when he advocated for strict regulations on national exams to prevent cheating.

    Maverick was appointed the Leader of the Solidarity Youth Movements for West Papua in 2017 by the Solomon Islands Solidarity Movements, after his graduation from high school. Maverick joined the Youngsolwara Youth Movement in 2017 and became a member of it as well.

    When the Solomon Islands Government switched its alliance from Taiwan to Mainland China in 2018, Maverick became more active in activism. He was one of the youth leaders who was detained by the police for staging a silent protest at the Henderson International Airport when the Solomon Islands Foreign Affairs Minister left for China.

    Maverick joined Oxfam Solomon Islands, Development Services Exchange and the Forum Solomon Islands International in 2019, as a volunteer with the Solomon Islands Social Accountability Coalition. He traveled throughout the provinces to educate people in rural areas about how to hold service providers accountable.

    Maverick remained low-key and returned to his activism on USP in 2020, the year he was elected as the Vice President of the USPSA Solomon Islands Campus, a post he has held for two terms.

    Maverick was appointed as the Solomon Islands' ambassador in 2021 by U-Report.

    Later, Maverick resigned from USPSA Solomon Islands in order to concentrate more of his efforts on youth development work in the rural areas with the President of the Malaita Provincial Youth Council and the Young Entrepreneurs Council Solomon Islands.

  • Georgina Oroi

    YOUTH CAMPAIGNER

    As a Melanesian Pacific Islander, Gina has chosen to dedicate her time and life to continue to fight for a better Pacific and protect her people. She has chosen to live her life by combating human rights violations, to become a voice of the voiceless in the spaces of West Papua self-determination, nuclear disarmament, ocean protection, and a brighter Pacific, where the destructive issues we are currently facing in our region become resolved and eradicated. Gina is Melanesian and she will always choose to protect her people of the Pacific region.

  • Tamatoa TEPUHIARII

    YOUTH CAMPAIGNER

    Tamatoa TEPUHIARII is a Māòhi graduate student (Indigenous from French Polynesia), youth delegate of the Māòhi Protestant Church, and prospective Ph.D. student in Anthropology.

    Tamatoa's involvement is mainly in religious gatherings in Māòhi Nui, in the Pacific, and in some countries around the world as a youth representative. As a Ph.D. student, his research deals with the consequences of nuclear testing in French Polynesia and particularly the relationship between radiation-induced pathologies and contemporary challenges.

    His engagements allow him to be aware of Māòhi and Pacific issues and then act through conferences and his own studies.

    A wise reminder to our youth people will be: "Now, we must speak up and advocate against injustices for our people who deserve justice and dignity! If we don't, who's gonna stand for us?"