Funding helps set up 2 GBV projects
Better chances for kindy children
MEDICAL Services Pacific (MSP) says the $2.14 million in funding from the European Union has allowed for the establishment and implementation of two successful sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) projects.
“One project allows us to establish a new clinic in Lautoka,” said MSP country director Ashna Shaleen.
“In the midst of COVID-19 our third clinic, called the post-rape clinic that was in the Western Division gradually came to an end on February 28 but we were able to secure an ongoing funding to keep operations going because there was a need to have such a project on sexual gender-based violence,” Ms Shaleen said.
She said the post rape clinic was a one-stop shop set up.
“We have counselling, the medical forensic aspect of the set-up and we have the legal support system.
“When the client is a child, many a times the legal support system and the counselling element is not just for the child but parents too.
“For children below the age of five, they don’t understand what has happened, but the parents need that support and that’s when the counselling and legal support kicks in.
“The medical forensic is when the doctor and medical professionals that we have are able to take on samples to see if there’s any tear or harm on parts of the body and whether this will be part of the investigation.
“That is all translated into the Fiji Police Force forms that is then taken in for further investigation and so forth.”
A CHILD who completes one year of pre-school is more likely to succeed in secondary school, university and life.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative for Pacific island countries Jonathan Veitch said this as he briefly went through UNICEF’s Multi-Country Programme (MCP) plan for 2023–2027 during a recent informal meeting with the media.
“So Fiji has good policy, they want to have early childhood education for all children, and they’re just introducing a new curriculum,” he said.
“And if we can get all those kids into school, they will be more successful in primary and then in secondary learning, as well.
“So we’ve helped them with the development of that curriculum.”
Mr Veitch said the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted some issues that needed immediate attention.
“We also look at innovations we saw during lockdown and school closures during COVID, that digital learning can be quite important.
“And actually we didn’t do a great job in the Pacific, and we were unable to deliver the same level of education through digital means.
“We’re going to be looking at how that can improve over the coming couple of years.”
During the pandemic, The Fiji Times reported that many students in rural and maritime areas, and some in urban areas were unable to conduct activities shared by teachers online because they did not have phones or laptop nor computers or did not have internet access.