As the Fijiana 7s team continues to celebrate their bronze medal win in Tokyo, support keeps pouring in.
Naomi Roberts, one of the organisers of the “Go Fund Me (GFM)” project for the girls said she was proud of the girls’ achievement.
The group include Sydney-based Sevu Waqa and Lizann Vailasi and Fiji-based Tura Lewai. Naomi said she was relieved and so proud to see the girls played their utmost best and gave the global audience a Women’s Rugby 7s match that was worthy of an Olympics Gold medal performance!
“I was fortunate to play sport at an elite level in Australia for rugby and in Fiji for volleyball. I’ve experienced being part of a developed country’s team environment and a developing country’s team environment,” she said.
“So I know the feeling of frustration of being a female athlete and having to finance yourself to play a sport you love and knowing you have the ability but lack the support you need to get you closer to a level playing field with other teams.
“We, including the Bluewiggers Fan Group, try and support Fijiana 7s wherever we can so the girls can do what they love. It’s been a long time coming and when they finally got the accolades and recognition, my first reaction was just sheer relief.
“Relieved for their families and friends, relieved for the team management, relieved for all the female rugby players that first played in Fiji and copped all the abuses from male and female alike, relieved that finally Fijiana 7s had broken that glass ceiling.”
Roberts, who hails from Rukua Village on Beqa, now lives in Australia. During the Oceania 7s in Australia, Naomi hosted a Go Fund Me that saw them raising $3719.29 out of the targeted $9000 which they were able to buy the Fijiana team a Dell Insprion laptop to monitor their GPS tracker.
All the girls were given training apparel and $7000 worth of Schwalger Performance sponsored good quality long and short compression tights before their departure for Tokyo.
“On Monday the second of August, we started our GFM fundraising, five hours later GFM emailed to say that they’ve suspended and are reviewing it.
“I was taken by surprise as we had GFM for Fijiana’s wish list up before the Olympics and no one took any notice of it! “On Tuesday we saw FRU’s statement, regarding relevant fundraising permits to be approved from relevant government agencies and that they had to initiate their actions because of concerns and complaints from the management of the team as they were not consulted.
“I knew straight away that all those points from FRU shouldn’t affect us, as we were overseas based and we’ve always been in contact with Fijiana team management.
“Our team had written back to GFM to confi rm our credibility and provide all their requirements to re-launch our fundraising. GFM was very helpful and we were back on Wednesday afternoon and the support had been overwhelming as Fijiana fans from all over the globe had donated in support of Fijiana.
“Whatever amount we raised it will be going to the team in appreciation of their tough and gallant rise on the Olympics dais.”
Fiji Rugby Union chief executive officer John O’Connor said they didn’t have any issue with their fundraising since the law didn’t apply to those living overseas and they are uncertain with their intention towards the fundraising.
