The wantok has often been described as a “safety net” for a country like the Solomon Islands, where there are no social service schemes. In the Solomon Islands, there are about 220 different languages spoken. Traditionally, the members of the wantok system look out for each other during hard times, for example, to pay school fees of their children and for other assistance in times of need.3 This “type of security has a certain edge over the social security of an impersonal bureaucracy”.