7 Jun 2010

Tongan New Zealander delighted with Queens' Service Medal

7:34 pm on 7 June 2010

Tongan woman Siale Afuhia Salote Lilo has been awarded the Queen's Service Medal for her services to the Pacific Islands community in the New Zealand Queen's Birthday honours.

She is a Tongan Methodist Church representative and a lay preacher.

Mrs Lilo helped set up the New Zealand Tonga Tourist Association and several Tongan beauty pagents.

She also helped organise a prayer meeting to remember those lost in the Princess Ashika ferry sinking in Tonga last year as well as organise containers of relief aid for people in Samoa after the September tsunami.

"I'm very pleased with the award given and its something that I have the passion for. I'm here to serve the community to the best of my ability for the rest of my life I guess. And I thank you to all the organisations who recognize that and acknowledge that by putting forward my name for this medal."

Siale Afuhia Salote Lilo