A plea for support from corporate organisations
DIABETES Fiji Inc has made a plea to corporate houses for support and wishes to thank its current corporate partners.
“We wanted to share what Kontiki (Finance Ltd) has been doing for us and we hope there are other potential business partners out there as willing to provide if they have generosity to support us,” said acting project manager Marawa Kini.
On June 27, 2022 Kontiki donated a 4WD vehicle to the organisation allowing staff to reach interior areas of Viti Levu and provide house-call services for particularly vulnerable patients.
“We just want to acknowledge and appreciate Kontiki for providing us a vehicle and not just that but everything is under them; the fuel and continued maintenance of the vehicle is fully funded by them too. They’ve even gone beyond to tell us they would gladly review the fuel limits if we needed it. So we just really want to appreciate Kontiki’s support,” said Mr Marawa.
Diabetes Fiji was once a widespread organisation, providing assistance to diabetic people nationwide but has since had to downsize due to a lack of funds. A heart-breaking task for staff members to be forced to refuse providing assistance when a patient is simply too far to reach, the organisation is hoping for more corporate partnerships to remedy this.
“We as a charitable organisation; our main objective is to help the vulnerable, but we need the assistance of corporate partners to be able to extend that to another level and employ permanent staff,” Mr Marawa added.
“Diabetes is like a tsunami in Fiji and the Pacific and we have seen so many people facing issues. Some have been reusing syringes, not able to store the medication, many just can’t afford the help they need. And beyond that we’ve also seen discrimination and mistreatment. There is a lot to deal with. And we’re not asking for the support for ourselves.”
Diabetes Fiji is open to discussions with businesses and other possible providers about screenings, advisory and other services in exchange for support.