Building of Resilient Communities in Ra , Fiji

On behalf of the local residents of Nakarotubu District on the coast of Ra Province, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to GlobalGiving Donors for your generous support to our project.

On July 23-27, we involved the locals of Saioko Village in conducting a five-day community consultation and awareness program to provide necessary information of the crisis and threats that impacts the whole environment. This event also served as a platform for the locals to come forward and express their concerns with what is actually happening around them.

Our priority is to safeguard community interest on the protection of their natural resources such as forest, coral reefs, and mangroves. The information that we gathered during the consultation will serve as basis for our capacity work to demonstrate simple and adoptable concepts that they can easily apply.

Meanwhile, we are also committed to continuously working with them, including the school children in the protection of their coastal and watershed by doing mangrove rehabilitation activities and tree planting activities in upland areas. 

With your support, we are also planning to introduce small-scale income generating projects so that the locals will not resort to unsustainable use of natural resources. We believe that in time, people will be able to fully confront this issue and take considerable measures to sustain their survival.

On behalf of the local residents of Nakarotubu District on the coast of Ra Province, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to GlobalGiving Donors for your generous support to our project.

For the past few months, in collaboration with the locals and the students, we have been busy maintaining the planted mangrove propagules along the coastal area of Saioko Village. We have to do constant re-planting to replace the mangrove propagules affected by the flash floods due to heavy downpours. Moreover, to prevent the mangrove propagules from choking, with the help of the village people, we have to remove the algae using scissors as well as the garbage carried out by waves.

During our interview with the villagers, we learned that they are still struggling from water shortage due to the irregular supply. Sometimes, this problem results to school closure especially in dry season. The villagers also mentioned of the reduction of fish catch after the typhoon damaged the coral reefs near the village.

With our limited funding, it is difficult for us to implement our activities in full swing. By mobilizing our networks and utilizing our available resources, we are hoping to install water tanks to serve as storage or reserve tanks to the villagers. We also intend to expand our mangrove reforestation site to protect the local from strong winds.

We are hoping that with your support, we will be able to help address the environmental related problems and somehow uplift the economic condition of the five communities of the Ra Province.

On behalf of the local residents of Nakarotubu District on the coast of Ra Province, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Global Giving Donors for your generous support to our project.

For several years, we have been implementing tree planting activities, coral restoration and mangrove rehabilitation to help build resilient communities targeting the local residents of the five local coastal villages of Nakarotubu District.

With fishing and farming as the main source of livelihood of the people, a huge percentage of the population is living below the poverty threshold level. Moreover, as the villages are facing the open sea, the locals are vulnerable from natural disasters such as cyclone.

Recently, we have conducted a mangrove planting activity involving the local residents of Saioko and in collaboration with the students of Nakarotubu District School. We need to do constant transplanting to replace the mangrove seedlings that have been washed out by strong waves after the Cyclone Winston.

It takes a lot of effort to restore a mangrove vegetation as it is laborious and time consuming. However, based on our several experiences in the field, we have been aware of its importance in terms of serving as natural shields of the local communities from salt sprays, strong winds and wind-blown sands. In the long-run, the mangrove provides a reliable source of food and income of the locals. 

We are hoping that with your support, we will be able to help address the environmental related problems of the five communities of the Ra Province.