Education and Public Health In Fiji

Thank you to all of our donors for their wonderful support of this program.

Our overall goal is to spread awareness of health issues so that people do not become ill.  A preventative approach is central to this project.

Our program consists of sets of cards which we have created on specific topics.  These are the basis for the education program.  Using the topics on these cards we either do group talks or communicate the information on a one to one basis around the nine villages where we work.

All the topics that are part of this program are based on identified health issues in the district.

This health program was developed in collaboration with our district nurse and she has input into each of the workshops and resources that are created.

The District Nurse helps us ensure the community members understand the subject matter. For example, we test the resources with local community members who have a good level of English. They are able to tell us which words the community will understand or which ones we need to change to ensure the meaning is clear.

English is the first language in Fiji . All of the health resources for our project are in English. However, many rural community members speak only a little English. Our resources address this by using picture cards and doing picture based activities.  We also ensure our pictures are not too generic, it is important that the community members can relate to them. We also have a Fijian team member who can translate where necesary.

How do we decide what is the most relavant topic at any given time?

We have created a monitoring process to help us decide on what illness need to be focused on. We visit the clinic each Monday, The District nurse lets us know what health issues she as been dealing with the most the previous week and which villages the cases come from. Then we put a plan together to target those areas on our Tuesday and Wednesday village visits. This helps our education program directly target the current issues.

Your donations enable us to develop resources that help us effectively run workshops and information sessions to address health issues. using a preventative approach.

We appreciate your ongoing support. Thank you.

We appreciate you ongoing support for this project.

Education is a key to good health and awareness of potentional health issues. Our project strives to make the community aware of health topics and through education. It also strives to give children a good start to their growth and development. 

One example is breast health awareness.  This project means in three weeks, we were able to conduct awareness workshops with 32 community health workers providing the material that they use to spread the word through their communities. We  also facilitated one on one and small group discussions.  These sessions reached 281 community members across the district of Dawasamu. Your support allowed us to create and distribute information to support this programme.

Another example of education and health is our early years education programme. Part of good health is for children to achieve their develpmental markers. This includes physical skills, language, social skills and emotional growth. Our early years programme facilitiates learning opportunities for children through structured play programmes. Your support allows us to aquire resources to help with this program from children's books to play materials.  The play programme allows opportunities for children to flourish and grow.  These key skills in the early years provide a foundation for future growth especially as they move into their formative years of formal education. 

Thank you for your ongoing support for this project. You support means we can provide a range of resources to support learning for both adults and children.

Awareness raising is such an important part of good health. Solid development in the early years gives children a strong foundation for futue growth.  Your contributions are helping us make a difference, thanks so much for your onoing support.

The ideology behind preventive healthcare focuses on protecting, promoting, and maintaining health and well-being.

Preventive healthcare aims to avert disease, disability, and death on an individual basis, as well as on a large scale in communities.

Health volunteers work alongside community health workers from the districts of Dawasamu and Bureiwia helping them spread the word about how to stay healthy!

The Education and Public Health in Fiji project creates workshops on specific topics or focus on particular national and international focus days.  For example, in  May volunteers created and presented a workshop for  World No Tobacco Day which is observed on May 31. The aim is to raise awareness about the damage caused by tobacco comsumption..

Health volunteers assisted the Dawasama District nurse to pass on the anti tobacco message. The attendees were students aged between 11 -14 years of age. 

The main focus points about the harm tobacco does to your body, how smoking damages the environment, how expensive tobacco is, and all the things you could buy if you "Say No To Tobacco".

Your valuable contributions provide resources that support the delivery of these workshops.

The result is that we assist the district nurse in spreading awareness among the community members of Dawasamu from the young to the not-so-young on a range of health issues.

Education 

The Early Childhood Education project focus on working with children 4 years of age and under in the villages of Nasinu, Silana and Nataleira a total of 43 children, facilitating learning through play sessions that support the development of skills in key developmental areas – cognitive, emotional, social and physical. Each village is visited twice a week; one-morning session focusing on cognitive learning and one-afternoon session focusing on social and physical learning. 

In April we will start the project again after a two-year closure due to  COVID. We are busy putting together educational resources packs to aid the volunteers in teaching. Each pack is designed around a theme i.e cars, balls. Then the volunteer will plan the lessons for three days using the resources packs. They will be assisted by a local community member who will help them plan and deliver the lessons. 

To ensure a holistic approach, we also delivered short courses for caregivers communicating the importance of Early Childhood Development and how children can be supported at home, focusing on the importance of parental involvement in the development of language and communication skills; motor skills; collaboration; and problem-solving. Sharing ideas on productive play and involvement with children, including creating activities and making toys that promote cognitive development. These sessions are run alongside the playgroup sessions this allows parents to attend while their children are enjoying learning and playing with their friends.

Public Health:

The main goal of the project is to support the functions of the District Nurse that are essential for both productivity and improving health and wellness. And provides support to increase the self-efficacy of 15 community health workers (CHWs) to be productive health providers within their communities that span between Dawasamu District and Bureiwai District. It is well-established that the CHWs are crucial to both optimizing quality of care and addressing increased patient volume.  GVI aides in human resources management and supporting CHW service delivery and encourage District Nurse role in continuous learning opportunities for her staff. All efforts aim to achieve the vision “The best medicine of all is to teach people not to need it.” A community health worker (CHW) is a community liaison between the village they live in and the district nurse. 

Over the next few months, we will start working with the communities of Dawasamu again, after meeting with the Dawasamu District Nurse one area she as asked us to focus on is nutrition, focusing on the diseases that can occur due to a poor diet, how this can affect a child's learning potential and growth. Resources are being created to assist with workshops which are designed to be interactive to ensure that workshops are interesting and enjoyed by all who take part. 

The Early Childhood Education project focus on working with children under 5 years of age in the villages of Nasinu, Silana and Nataleira a total of 43 children, facilitating learning through play sessions that support the development of skills in key developmental areas – cognitive, emotional, social and physical. Each village is visited twice a week; one-morning session focusing on cognitive learning and one afternoon session focusing on social and physical learning.

To ensure a holistic approach, we also delivered short courses for caregivers communicating the importance of Early Childhood Development and how children can be supported at home, focusing on the importance of parental involvement in the development of language and communication skills; motor skills; collaboration; and problem-solving. Sharing ideas on productive play and involvement with children, including creating activities and making toys that promote cognitive development. These sessions are run alongside the playgroup sessions this allows parents to attend while their children are enjoying learning and playing with their friends.