$3m housing project to finish by mid next year
A $3 MILLION housing project titled, Project Cokonaki Cogea, will be completed by mid next year with 30 houses built for villagers who lost their properties to Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasa two years ago.
Spearheaded by the Fiji Council of Social Services, and funded by Bread for the World, the project yesterday brought together stakeholders to discuss ways of working together to assist the affected villagers.
FCOSS executive director Vani Catanasiga said the meeting was to provide an overview of the project to key stakeholders and foster a better appreciation for its community centred approach.
“It is also to solicit feedback and input into the three phases of the project especially in areas requiring technical and logistical support,” she said.
“This project was designed with members of the Cogea Village Youth Council and the Bua Urban Youth Network which are affiliates of the Bua and Suva District Council
of Social Services.
“We must acknowledge the work of the Cogea Village youths who kept pushing us to get this project done as they assisted with preliminary reports and surveys.”
Ms Catanasiga said the houses would have a sewerage system while the provision of solar system was still being discussed with other stakeholders.
“Right now we have agreed to providing sewerage system for the families and not solar but this maybe looked at by other stakeholders. For our team, we chose sewerage over solar.
“The plan of these houses is very different from the normal patterns of housing assistance we have seen because it is based on the feedback of the affected villagers.”