- TAILEVU YOUTH GROUP GIVES BACK TO COMMUNITY – A small investment made by Government for a youth group in Tailevu is reaping rewards; one year after the project was established.
- FIJI DELIVERS STATEMENT AT UN MEET IN THAILAND – Fiji delivered its statement at the opening of the opening of the 70th Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific currently underway in Bangkok, Thailand.
- NATIONAL SPORTS COMMISSION PROGRAMS BENEFITS 14,000 – Since its establishment early last year, the Fiji National Sports Commission has worked extensively o develop sports into the interior parts of the country.
- MINISTRY REMINDS PARENTS ON STUDENT ATTENDANCE – Government today reminded parents and guardians on the importance of ensuring that their children attend classes.
1 TAILEVU YOUTH GROUP GIVES BACK TO COMMUNITY
A small investment made by Government for a youth group in Tailevu is reaping rewards; one year after the project was established.
In 2013 Government provided funds to the youth group of Lodoni in Tailevu to establish a fish farming business and earn income. The design of the venture is two-fold; to earn income and to live off the farm.
Youth group leader Sera Bukuti said the project is instilling a lot of pride and maturity for the youth. She said that since the beginning of this new project, the young men and women are learning for the first time how to provide for their families and for their community.
“The fish is mainly tilapia. With this initiative, we are helping the villagers especially, in the rural sector, to save extra money and also increase their income earnings,” she said.
The group received funding materials for a farmhouse, construction of road and feed for their fish ponds from the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Last month the group harvested “tilapia” and earned close to $3000 monthly and earned $700 a month from the prawn farm. The success of this project is also seeing the youth group venture to other farming produce including watermelons.
Government’s district officer in Tailevu Viliame Baleirara said these projects is bringing about positive changes to the division especially for the young men and women of Tailevu.
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2 FIJI DELIVERS STATEMENT AT UN MEET IN THAILAND
Fiji delivered its statement at the opening of the opening of the 70th Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific currently underway in Bangkok, Thailand.
This statement was delivered by the Head of the Fijian delegation to the meeting, the Ministry of Strategic Planning permanent secretary Mr Pita Wise. The Fijian permanent secretary who is also the Deputy Chairman of the Special Body on Least Developed, Landlocked Developing and Pacific Island Development States, presented a Report on the “Preparatory Meeting” which was held earlier this month.
In his presentation, Mr Wise reiterated that development challenges faced by these groups of countries should be brought to the forefront of the Post-2015 development agenda. Therefore development challenges need to be addressed with urgency. These include, eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, promoting inclusive growth, employment generation and decent work, improving educational outcomes, focusing in particular on improving the quality of education, improving health outcomes such as on non-communicable diseases.
In addition, the promotion of gender equality and empowerment, managing demographic dynamics and urbanisation, upgrading infrastructure, expanding productive capacities, increasing access to trade in products and services and building trade facilities, promoting accountable and responsive governance, protecting natural capital, promoting green growth and tackling climate change must be given special priority.
Mr Wise further reiterated the concern on external threats to sustainable development and underscores the need for development agenda beyond 2015, together with its targets and indicators to be contextualized within the realities on the ground in each of the respective countries under this grouping.
To close the development gaps and implementing a post-2015 development agenda, LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS will require significant mobilization of resources from different sources and the effective use of financing that will be made available. Moreover, he stressed the need for a global monitoring and accountability framework for the effective implementation of the post-2015 development agenda, including the identification of responsibilities for implementation, financing and monitoring.
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3 NATIONAL SPORTS COMMISSION PROGRAMS BENEFITS 14,000
Since its establishment early last year, the Fiji National Sports Commission has worked extensively o develop sports into the interior parts of the country.
The Commission’s executive chairman Peter Mazey said that a lot has been achieved in just one year with approximately 14,824 participants in the country benefiting from the programs.
“The Commission of course has also been involved in providing funding to all of our national sporting organisation to conduct their own development programs, train their sports national teams, assist in their local and international tournament funding.
These are the various programs that have been run by the commission for the past 11 months which include;
- Sports Outreach covering 10 villages
- Educate the educators in six areas around the country
- School programs in 67 schools
- Give it a Go in five areas
- Wellness programs in 3 areas with 2000 participants
- School holiday camps in Suva, Macuata and Nadroga/Navosa
- Mr Mazey said that the sports outreach program had benefitted over 1037 youths from all parts of the country from Naitasiri, Ba, Ra, Tailevu, Namosi, Rewa, Macuata, Bua and Kadavu.
“The aim of the program is to create future sporting leaders in rural communities and provide participation and performance pathways for identified talent.
“As for the Educate the educators programs, it intends to up skill the teachers and coaches to confidently deliver up to date and relevant sports programs in schools and clubs,” Mr Mazey said.
The school programs were conducted in 67 schools with over 8000 participants with the aim of fun and inclusive introductory sports program.
The sports commission also facilitated 3 programs with a turnout of 2000 people of all ages promoting wellness through physical activity for associated health benefits in the Suva and Lautoka areas.
Mr Mazey said that the International coaching grant is now fully established which has a allocation of $2million in the 2014 Budget.
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4 MINISTRY REMINDS PARENTS ON STUDENT ATTENDANCE
Government today reminded parents and guardians on the importance of ensuring that their children attend classes.
This was highlighted after more than 300 students from Nabua Secondary School, Nausori High School and Dravo District School were today rewarded for being punctual to school as part of the VuliRoz Campaign.
The VuliRoz Campaign was launched by the Ministry of Education in July this year to improve students’ school attendance by 10 per cent, to encourage regular school attendance and minimise chronic absence.
The Ministry of Education acting permanent secretary Basundra Kumar, while presenting the first round of awards to punctual students at the three schools in the Central Division, encouraged them to maintain their commitment towards school attendance.
Mrs Kumar also urged those who did not receive any rewards to attend school daily on time and make the best use of the various opportunities provided by the Fijian Government.
“Government has carried out 42 reforms to make education more accessible to every Fijian student. These include the historical fee-free education, bus fare assistance and textbooks assistance amongst others. All you have to do is to come to school every day,” Mrs Kumar said.
She also called on parents to ensure that their children are punctual to school.
“Government is playing its part in supporting our children financially. Now it’s your parents’ responsibility to provide you moral support
“The whole purpose of these government initiatives is to make Fiji knowledge based society so that we have good and educated citizens,” Mr Kumar added.
The rewards given today were for those students who were punctual to school from week 4 to week 7 of this term.
Nabua Secondary School headboy, Sitiveni Qalobula, thanked the Government and the Ministry of Education for implementing this initiative to motivate students.
“This is a very good initiative because it encourages us to come to school every day. When students do not come to school daily, they miss out on a lot of school work. This affects their studies but with this campaign in our school, we hope more students will take interest in it and improve school attendance,” Qalobula said.
Sixty out of 461 students from Nabua Secondary School, 135 out of 354 Nausori High School students and 115 out of 240 students of Dravo District School were rewarded for their commitment towards the VuliRoz Campaign.
Close to 7600 students from 18 primary and 14 secondary schools around Fiji are participating in the campaign.
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