The Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA) Fiji is already on the ground providing support to communities in desperate need and supporting the Fijian Government with its COVID-19 response under the COVID-19 Operations Fiji (COF) project.
With the support of ADRA Global Network, LDS Charities, World Vision NZ, Tearfund NZ and Sanitarium Food Company from Australia, around half a million Fijian dollars ($US250,000) has been injected to fund the eight months project ending March 2022.
Its main goal is to reduce suffering, maintaining human dignity, and to assist in the containment of the COVID-19 while contributing towards creating pandemic resilient communities in Fiji. ADRA Fiji works closely with the National Disaster Management Office, the divisional commissioners, as well as the Ministry of Health within Suva to focus on the following areas:
- Provide Food Security and Livelihood support through distributions of food kits, seeds and to raise awareness on healthy eating and COVID-19 resilience;
- Provide critical and timely complementary support to government and communities to address COVID-19 through the provision of beds, PPEs, and multipurpose cash distribution;
- Support the Health and vaccination awareness campaigns, and provide psychosocial support to affected households Suva and surrounding areas in the Central Division have been selected as the target beneficiaries for this response due to the outbreak being concentrated in these areas.
Aiding government’s response
Providing relevant Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to protect Fiji’s frontline health workers is essential to ensure they remain COVID-19 free and are able to continue caring for those infected with COVID-19.
A total of 200 PPE packs were handed over to the Minister of Health last week to aid the work of the frontliners.
These PPEs were loaded on the same day and sent to Kadavu as our front liners have been deployed to contain on the island.
PPEs will also be distributed to communities’ frontliners through the Fiji Council of Social Services.
ADRA Fiji also provided 100 beds to ensure there are adequate spaces in the hospitals and isolation centres for people infected with COVID-19.
The provision of beds also ensures that patients are provided with dignity and protection.
Project activities have been designed to complement the activities of other humanitarian actors.
To complement the work of the Government, awareness on COVID-19 Protection related issues will be conducted and community messaging will be aired on Radio and TV Stations.
Supporting food security and livelihoods
Food security and livelihoods have been severely impacted by the pandemic.
After a week of house-to-house distributions based on the beneficiary list from NDMO, a total of 1000 affected households have already been assisted with food rations.
Our assistance reached as far as Delailasakau Village in the interior of Naitasiri – passing the Sawani border, the rugged terrain and crossing rivers to reach the elderly and the widowed last week.
Due to movement restrictions and border closure, women from Naitasiri are not being able to sell their fresh produce in the market.
Even when they try selling at the Sawani border, their produce often goes to waste because of the limited buyers at the border.
Communities assisted in Naitasiri were Delailasakau, Basoganisala, Naseivou, Vanuakula, Nasele, Nasivotu and Korovou.
Impacting lives
It’s almost six months since the women’s cricket team from Moce left the Lau island for Viti Levu to participate in the annual cricket competition.
The inaugural tournament, however, was cancelled due to the second outbreak of COVID-19, leaving the
group of 44 stranded.
Among the team from Moce Secondary School team are the teachers, parents and supporters.
They have since been billeted in Kinoya and hosted by a fellow Moce Islander.
With the inclusion of the host’s family, each meal has to be enough to feed a total of 58 people.
This has been the case for the past five months and they have been surviving through the support from their relatives, Lau Provincial Council, organisational support and they were recently assisted by Government
with food rations.
On top of being stranded, the group is also on home quarantine after a few members were identified with COVID-19 symptoms.
Last week, Team ADRA Fiji visited their home camp to deliver their food rations after receiving the request from the Lau Provincial Council.
To ensure they are food secure until their much anticipated return home in the coming weeks, 30 food packages were dropped off as part of ADRA Fiji’s COVID-19 Operations Fiji (COF) Project.
Ifereimi Taufa, principal of Moce Secondary School expressed his gratitude on behalf of the group for the timely assistance received.
“For a meal, if we are to eat chicken, we will need a whole bag to feed us and if we choose to have bread for breakfast then we have to be prepared to pay for three dozens in order to cater for us all.
“There’s a whole lot of us here and I know it’s not easy to cater for us but we are thankful for the assistance that we have been receiving and we are really grateful to ADRA for coming in today to support us away from home,” Mr Taufa said.
- Losalini Bolatagici is the Communications Officer for ADRA Fiji
