Public Health in Fiji

Thanks for your ongoing support and interest of this project. 

Our project has a key goal of preventing health issues.  This can be done on a broad spectrum where we help educate and address common health issues in the region.

However, we also address what the issues are right now. For example if there is flu or a stomach virus moving around the district we can hone in on preventative and management measures. We can do this through workshops and  information brochures for adults and through fun interactive lessons with children.

We collate information from the district nurse and community health workers on a  monthly basis to ascertain the major health concerns for the last month in the region. Using this information, we then plan workshops and support processes to address these particular concerns.

For example if there are numerous issues with vomitting we address fundamentals of the WASH program.  This would look at topics such as handwashing, hydration and clean water.

Of course it is good to get out in front of these issues rather than waiting for the issues to arises.  This is where our data collection helps.  We can reflect on a years worth of data on health issues and see where there are patterns of issues arising.  For example if a particular month tends to be the start of the cold and flu season, we can start our preventative education topics before that month comes around. The goal is to reduce the number of cases by discussing the topics before they become an issue.

It's important for children as well as adults to understand potential health issues.  On Wednesday afternoons we support health clubs at a primary school.  Here our project team work with teachers to deliver information about health topics.  In doing this we ensure the students are well engaged through active learning, songs, crafts, and other activities.  It helps their understanding of the topics. 

Why is your support so important? Resources are vital for ensuring these programs can be effectively carried out. Having a brochure with health guidance for example can be useful for a range of people not just the person attending the workshop.  Interactive learning for children through making posters, sons and stories all help to spread the word on health topics.

We thank you for your valuable support and look forward to sharing our progress in our next report.

We appreciate your support for our collaborative Public Health project.

Why is it imporatant that our approach is collaborative?  We need to ensure we are addressing the needs of the community and in a way that effectively communicates information to the community members.  For this reason, we continue to work closely with the District Nurse.

We have developed resources to teach important health concepts to community members. These resources are information about specific health topics and are used for the basis for one to one and group training sessions.  The focus of these sessions is preventitive health care.

We meet with the District Nurse regularly and part of this is to identify specific needs in the community at that time.  

We are mindful that although English is the first language in Fiji, there are many rural community members who do not have strong English skills. To address this we have created resources that are very visual. We have pictures and other visuals that help get the message across. We ensure the images are generic so they are relatable to the community members. Our Fijian project members can also help with translations where needed.

When we create new resourses, we spend time trialling them with community members to check that they effectively get the message across. The District Nurse also provides feedback.

Our project is built aound collaboration and the needs of the community.  With your support we have been able to build out resources to effectively eduate on vital health topics reaching the members of nine villages.

Thanks for your donations, they make a difference.

We value your ongoing support for our Public Health project.

Our focus is on preventative health care. The ideology this is that we focus on protecting, promoting, and maintaining health and well-being. If the community is well informed on issues and potential issues, they can take steps to lead healthy lives and also be aware of the warning signs of various health issues.

Health volunteers work alongside community health workers from the districts of Dawasamu and Bureiwia helping them spread the word about how to stay healthy! We do this at a community level through awareness campaigns and workshops as well as on a one to one basis.

Upskilling is such an important part of the health program. Back in September we worked on upskilling the community health workers on the importance of talking about and discussing breast cancer and how awareness workshops can save lives.

Over a period of 3 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. Plus we were also able to conduct one on one and small group discussions and reached 281 community members across the district of Dawasamu.

Your support means that valuable resources such as posters and brochures that highlight the focus topics, havin information to refer to is helpful in the learning and awareness raising process. Thank you for your suport in making this possible.

We look forward to sharing our future developments in the comin months.  Thanks again for your generous donations, you support makes a difference.

Thank you for your onoing support of our Public Health project.

Public Health is particularly effective when the community is engaged and involved.  Where the community have identified issues and are part of the solution. Education programmes in Dawasamu and District are conducted with the support of the Community Health Workers and the lead District Nurse. They are based on identified needs.

Our project strives to support health education in a variety of ways including; providing resources, upskilling trainers, gathering research and information, and coordinating sessions. Health topics can include topics such as; hygiene, early childhood development, first aid and well being.

It is also important to tap into both local and international health initiatives as a focus for health education.

One example was World Tobacco Day on May 31st.   Along with other communities across the world, the health issue of tobacco and smoking was addressed in the Dawasamu community. Workshops and information posters shared information about the dangers of smoking for people's health as well as the economic impact of smoking on families. 

When addressing most health issues it is important that children are involved. In the case of tobacco, when children are educated and armed with good information they can understand the problems of taking up smoking and can make informed choices. For some adults, this information may lead to them quitting or cutting down on their current habit as well as understanding how their habit can affect others.

Education is such a key to change and supporting the Community Health Workers wherever we can to educate the community of a wide range of health topics 

We thank you for support for this project, your donations help us with valuable resources so that effective.  We look forward to updating you further in the near future.

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.