 The SSEC is particularly popular on Malaita, the most populous island, where 47% of its members live; there are also smaller populations in Honiara and elsewhere on Guadalcanal, on Makira, and in other provinces.The organisation was founded in 1886 as the "Queensland Kanaka Mission" (QKM) in Queensland, Australia, as an evangelical and non-denominational church targeting Kanakas (blackbirded labourers at the sugarcane plantations, mostly from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu).Florence Young, the sister of Arthur, Horace and Ernest Young, the owners of the Fairymead plantation on which the mission was located, was largely responsible for the establishment of the mission, and served as secretary of the organisation.