MARKET WATCH
FOR more than 20 years, Lynnie and her husband Mark Roche held the fort at Homes of Hope, an organisation that cares for many young single mothers and their children.
The many young vulnerable women that have passed through their doors were victims of forced sex such as rape, incest, sexual abuse, trafficking and sexual exploitation.
It has been a journey of all sorts for the couple who first came to Fiji 23 years ago to head an orphanage, but instead saw many vulnerable young women left on the wayside.
The youngest single mother they took was an 11-yearold while the youngest rape victim was an 18-month-old.
It’s a sad scene they encounter on a daily basis but they have soldiered on despite the challenges.
As they mark their 23rd year of operation, this year, Lynnie looks back with much retrospect.
For the past decade, the couple have been surviving on a shoestring budget and by the “grace of God.”
“Our staff keeps us going, all of us are passionate about the love of Jesus Christ,” she shared.
“We really believe that it’s a calling that we’re here and that we have a job to do. The staff that we have are incredibly committed, passionate, skilled, knowledgble and everybody sticks it out despite slack pay checks and long working and tough conditions.”
Since its inception in 1996, Homes of Hope have been funded primarily by overseas donors and private individuals, but things have changed and the organisation needs help financially.
“The world is changing, the economy is changing and those overseas donors are really dropping off so we’re looking to the diaspora and the local Fijians to own this home because this is their home, this is their people, their issue,” said Lynnie.
“We really need businesses, individuals, churches, whether locally or whether it be the diaspora abroad to dive in and buy into this place. We have a website www. hopefiji.org and on that there’s a Give Hope Campaign that we hope can help.
“At present, the Home has about 12 single mothers who are residents, while eight are day scholars. These girls live in “hotspot communities” identified by social workers.
“The girls travel up to the Home in Wailoku on Sunday nights where they attend training from Monday to Friday then go back home Friday afternoon.
“We’ve noted a rise of drug cases among the girls – I mean when girls go through incredible trauma they look to whatever they can to mask the pain,” said Lynnie.
“The easy availability of hard drugs plus self-harm like cutting and things — our girls are getting into that which is a double whammy when you look into it.
“All of our staff are trauma informed and we have a trauma informed counsellor who helps these girls work through these things in trying to get past these addictions.
“Right now our bare bones budget is $600,000 per annum and that’s just bare bones and we’re not making that.
“Ideally we want a $1.6m budget that can take us regionally and what we want to do is take what we’ve done here, because we’ve written it all down, and take it and give it to Solomon Islands and other island nations because the problem is South Pacific wide.
“We want not only Fiji to benefit but the region as well.” She said.