Child Rights Convention Article 32 “You have the right to protection from work that is bad

for your health or education”

Save the Children

LUVE - I - VITI Children of FijiTOGETHER FOR CHILDREN July 2012

The Vuli Taumada Shishak (VTS) is one of the most important commu-

nity pre-school projects under Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) that aims to ensure that pre-school children enter primary education better prepared for successful learning. SC Fiji handed over Early Childhood Education Centre (ECE) Development kits to 12 identified centres at the Lau-toka City Mayoral Chambers on Tues-day, the 17th of this month. Eight centres out of the 12 are commu-nity based and man-aged respectively. The kits includ-ed plastic mats for seating, soft pup-pets, crayons, colouring pencils, plastic cups, safe soft toys, drawing books, paint brushes, pens and liquid paint amongst much other stationery and playing ma-terials. Along with the items for the children, the kits also contained many materials for teachers including workbooks, note books, attendance register books and more books which could be used for in-

SC Fiji Hands over ECE Development Kits to 12 Centres

ventory, accident or admission purposes. Western Divisional Coordinator SC Fiji, Gulsher Ali, said the children will greatly benefit from this handover. “They will now have new educational playing materials, soft toys plus other greats at their centre which will enhance their learning capabilities, empower and assist them to overcome the loss suffered

due to the flooding dis-aster,” he said. The 12 centres include Nakavika, Nata-warau, Matawalu, Vanu-akula, Vunato, Taiperia Lautoka, Taiperia Naiso-so Nadi, Saravi Navakai Nadi, Jack N Jill Nadi Sangam, Nadi Primary Kindergarten, Lomo-lomo Kindergarten and Vitogo Kindergarten. SC Fiji is looking at

introducing quality ECE programmes by the year 2015 with the goal of providing pre-school children of needy communi-ties in Labasa, Lautoka as well as the Cen-tral Division including Suva and Nasinu acquire worthy childhood education. “The programmes will take place in 52 centres with at least 1500 children annu-ally benefiting from quality teaching and learning methods,” Mr Ali said.

In this Issue:Pg 1 • SC Fiji Hands over ECE Devel- opment Kits to 12 Centres.

Pg 2 • Flood Response Programme Reaches Fourth Batch. • School Donates for Flood Affected Children.

Pg 3 • School Receives Assistance under Feeding Programme. • International Women’s Association Donates for Needy Children and Women.

Pg 4 • Teacher Training Workshop to Combat Child Labour. • Project Moves towards Extension Phase. • Advocating at FNU Open Day.

Pg 5 • Annual Oratory Hits Right to Education Issues. • KLF Forum to Raise Awareness on Child Rights. • A Child Rights Awareness Session for Students.

Pg 6 • Charity Golf in Aid of Children. • QBE Foundation Donates for Worthy Cause.

Pg 7 • A Family Visit by Review Team. • Manager Programmes Hosts Training for Staff. • SC Fiji at Showcase.

Pg 8 • New Staff in SC Fiji. • Upcoming Events.

SUPPORT PROVIDED MONTHS

TOTAL NUMBER

OF SCHOOLS

TOTAL NUMBER OF STUDENTS

2

School Donates for Flood Affected Children

Gospel Primary School lent a helping hand towards the ac-tivities of Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) by donating a total

amount of FJ$336.95 to the organisation. The donation was handed over to Vuli Taumada Shishak (VTS) Project Manager SC Fiji, Barbara Ratabacaca, at the school assembly while they celebrated children’s day.Head Teacher of the school, Paula Manumanunitoga, said the students raised the money by gathering collections from their mufti events. “We would like the donation to be used for the betterment of those children who were affected by the recent flooding,” Mr Manumanunitoga said. Chief Executive Officer SC Fiji, Chandra Shekhar, said SC Fiji acknowledges with deep appreciation the kind and generous gesture shown by the students of Gospel Primary School. “SC Fiji assures that this donation will be directly used for assistance of children affected by the flood in the western divi-sion as requested by the school,” Mr Shekhar added.

International Women’s Association Donates for Needy Children and Women

Flood Response Programme Reaches Fourth Batch

After the two recent devastating floods, most parents have lost their jobs and their plantations to support

their children through school with proper lunch and sta-tionery packs. Along with providing stationery and other school kits, the feeding scheme for schools supplied its fourth batch of school lunches to students with support from respec-tive local and international donors. Including 1934 lunch packs worth FJ$96,700 in total, the batch supports the students of 21 needy schools in Nadi, Ba, Sigatoka and Lautoka for a total of five weeks.Emergency Response Officer of Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji), Shanil Rao, said he is very thankful to the donors for lending a hand and assisting the children in need. “There are still many school students out there in the western division who attend school without proper lunch or even school kits,” Mr Rao said. He added that without the help from donors, SC Fiji would be unable to assist these children who sometimes go hungry the whole school day. Mr Rao said the schools were chosen after looking at various factors, working off Ministry of Education data, like which schools are located in the emergency declared areas by the Government and need urgent assistance. “We also target the children who are from the sugar-cane farming background as these are the ones whose family’s source of income was fully destroyed by the floods,” he said. Some of the schools under the programme were not directly affected by the flooding but the communities were greatly affected. Principle of Cuvu College said the school is very grateful to SC Fiji for providing the much needed assis-tance to the school. “We had so many students suffering from the floods and many of them were unable to even afford to bring lunch to school,” he said. SC Fiji will continue assisting the flood affected chil-dren to ensure that the children of Fiji continue to enjoy their right to education.

Food April 90 6285 May June July Milk April 28 2282Stationery April 165 6244Packs June Supplementary Stationery Packs* June 9 610TOTAL 6371 9342

*SC Fiji provided more items to the stationery packs provided by donors

Emergency Response Officer SC Fiji Mr Shanil Rao, Hospitality Co-ordinator IWA Mrs Lori Absell (centre) and President IWA Mrs

Carolyn Rouse (far right) with the donated products

3

International Women’s Association Donates for Needy Children and Women

Sabeto Muslim Primary School received assistance from Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) early this month

in the form of lunch for students who were affected by the recent two devastating floods under the feeding programme.The school received a total amount of FJ$8,350 as the first part of assistance and has been able to continue providing lunch for the students. Chief Executive Officer SC Fiji, Chandra Shekhar, said the feeding programme was undertaken by SC Fiji in response to concerns raised by teachers. “Many students were not attending school because their parents were unable to provide them lunch.Those who were attending school did not bring their lunch parcels and remain hungry for the day,” Mr Shek-har said. He added that it was also noted by the teachers that those children who missed lunch were not performing academically well. Head Teacher of the school, Jahid Alam, said al-though they had received assistance in form of school kits, levies and infrastructure, most of the students were still facing the problem of not having access to proper lunch packs. “Our organisation is very grateful for this exceptional foresight in form of the feeding programme as we are confident that this would act as an incentive for stu-dents to attend classes daily and fulfil their educational goals,” Mr Alam said. He added that the mosque cook and school club is assisting in preparation of the lunch packs keeping the ethnic population and culture of the school in mind when deciding the menu. The menu included chicken palau, chicken chop-suey, puri and vegetable curry, fish lolo with cassava and salad as well as chicken fried rice. Mr Alam said the school is glad to be associated with a vibrant organisation such as SC Fiji and look forward to working in collaboration in future for the benefit of the children.

International Women’s Association (IWA) donated sani-tary products to Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) on Mon-

day, 9th July to aid flood affected women and children in the western division. Carolyn Rouse, President of the IWA said the associa-tion had been assisting SC Fiji from earlier this year with providing FJ$6,500 to cater for stationeries and school bags to help the needy school children. “The IWA board then thought of the idea of asking our members to bring a donation of toiletries or sanitary products to our monthly meetings as a way of specifically helping the women and children in the west,” Mrs Rouse said She added that there had been a great response from IWA looking at the amount of goods donated to SC Fiji.

School Receives Assistance under Feeding Programme

Students of Sabeto Muslim Primary School with their lunch packs

VTS Project Manager SC Fiji Ms Barbara Ratabacaca (centre) and students of Gospel Primary School with the donated money

4

A two day teacher training work-shop was held for 23 Central

Division teachers on ‘Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Fiji’ (WFCL) on the 19th and 20th of this month at Holiday Inn in Suva. The workshop was hosted by

Teacher Training Workshop to Combat Child Labour

Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) and jointly facilitated by Ms Marie Fatiaki of International Labour Organisa-tion (ILO). The workshop was fund-ed by ILO. Stakeholders including ILO, Min-istry of Education and participating schools were involved in the train-ing. SC Fiji’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Chandra Shekhar, said he appre-ciates the presence of teachers who agreed to participate in the workshop. “This is such an occasion which participants should al-ways take advantage of as they add up to our professional development and capacity building,” Mr Shekhar said.

Project Moves towards Extension Phase

Save the Children Fiji’s (SC Fiji) “Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour: Preventing Children from

Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Fiji” Project has re-ceived an extension phase of 10 months from April 2012 to January 2013. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) funded project has been geared towards the prevention, institu-tional strengthening and awareness/advocacy strategies for implementation. Project Coordinator SC Fiji, Amita Prasad, said a lot of activities have been arranged for the teacher training workshops including case studies to see the risk and vul-nerability factors towards the exploitation of children like absenteeism and parental negligence. “The participants would then be able to develop school-based interventions that would best suit their own schools,” she said. Engaging 31 schools so far in the teacher training workshops, the project is now looking at a goal of reach-ing out to 40 schools in total with the extension. According to the Project Implementation Committee meeting, the interagency collaboration is to be strength-ened and more community participation is encouraged. The project’s future plans include life skills training with identified children once the programme is finalised. Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, Arts and Media (SCREAM) workshops would also take place with student representatives from August to September this year.

He added that as the participants meet children on a daily basis, they have to be very mindful of the issues that would arise when trying to handle child labour issues. “We have to be mindful on how we keep ourselves pro-tected in what we do and at the same time also ensure that our children are protected,” Mr Shekhar said.Project Coordinator SC Fiji, Amita Prasad, said the work-

shop looked at how teachers can intervene and prevent children from dropping out of the school system. “The workshop would also ex-plore strategies including school-based monitoring and child pro-tection policies to prevent children from dropping out of school and engaging into child labour,” Mrs Prasad said. She added that the training was supported by Ministry of Education

and it was encouraging to see five officials from Ministry of Education as well as the Principle Education Officer for the Central and Eastern Division, Mr Apao Solomone present at the training.

Advocating at FNU Open Day

For the first time, Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) was seen to have an advocacy booth at the Fiji National University

(FNU) Open Day in Samabula Campus held on Friday, 13th of July. With more than 30 schools visiting the campus on the day, SC Fiji was able to inform high school as well as tertiary students on child rights issues. Vuli Taumada Shishak (VTS) Project Officer Nasinu, SC Fiji, Avinit Narayan, said that overall it was a good first attempt to target school children and to provide them with awareness on issues related to their rights. “The children showed a lot of interest in the work we do and were quite keen to volunteer with us,” Mr Narayan said.Student, Loyola Nawalu who attends Saint Joseph’s Sec-ondary School, said she was thankful to SC Fiji for having a booth at the Open Day.

Workshop participants engaged in group work

VTS Project Officer Suva, Mr Jitesh Chandra (far right) advocating on child rights at the FNU Open Day

5

Annual Oratory Hits Right to Education Issues

A Child Rights Awareness Session for Students

KLF Forum to Raise Awareness on Child Rights

The Northern Division of Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) will be holding a Kids Link Fiji (KLF) forum on

Saturday 28th of this month at Khadriya Hall in Nao-damu for 100 Kids Link members and facilitators. The forum will focus towards enhancing KLF mem-bers in knowledge of child rights and child protection. Child Rights and Participation Officer SC Fiji, Neriman Kashouli, said the forum will include training inclusive of participation of KLF members by SC Fiji staff and guest speakers from Government agencies. Guest speaker Madonna Fong, Director of Public Prosecution, will be presenting on the Child Welfare Decree and the function of the Child Protection Sexual Assault Unit. There will also be a representative from the Police Drug Unit speaking on Drug Awareness and Substance Abuse in Fiji KLF members will participate in the forum by pre-senting on various child right issues such as child rights and responsibilities, child rights and the environment, child abuse and domestic violence and school bully-ing,” added Ms Kashouli. SC Fiji officers, Neriman Kashouli and Sosaia Tapu-eluelu, Child Rights Manager SC Fiji, will also present on child rights and implications in practice.

Save the Children Fiji’s (SC Fiji) annual national final oratory contest saw a total of eight students speak on

issues on the right to education for all children on Satur-day, 7th of July at Xavier College in Ba. Chandra Shekhar, Chief Executive Officer SC Fiji, said the national contest is a forum that helps children to have a say developed from the district and divisional contests. “This event is a very special and auspicious one as SC Fiji commitment remains to give the students an oppor-tunity to express their opinions and be part of the de-cision making at the grassroots, the operation level and also at the national level,” Mr Shekhar said. With the theme ‘Access to Education is a Right for all Children’ the students were categorised under the pri-mary, secondary and Kids Link Fiji categories. The winners were Ezra Pickering from Xavier College, Jade Wilson from Assemblies of God High School and Dylan Kava from Xavier College. Ezra Pickering, winner for the primary category said he feels very fortunate to win the national title and hopes that more children work towards joining the contest as it allows freedom of speech on the topic provided. Mr Shekhar added that SC Fiji has taken up the initia-tive to collect all the oratory scripts rights from the dis-trict levels and compile them into a journal which is to be provided to the Minister for Education in due course. He also acknowledged the sponsors without whom he believes this event would have not been successful in achieving its goals.

Child Rights Manager of Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji), Mr Sosaia Tapueluelu, held an awareness presenta-

tion at the Service-Pro International Tourism and Hos-pitality Institute on Thursday, 12th of July to educate the students on child rights and child protection issues. He said the presentation is important for the students as understanding children’s rights should not be in iso-lation but with responsibility. “Child rights come with responsibility, for example, children have the right to education but they must obey their teachers when in the classrooms and do their

homework,” Mr Tapueluelu said. He added that physical abuse alone does not consti-tute to child abuse but so does verbal and psychological abuse. Poate Hickes, a Certificate III in Hospitality student, said he got to learn issues that all children should be well aware of but sadly are not. “I am grateful for SC Fiji for taking their time out and informing us on child rights and protection issues es-pecially as I was not aware of most of these before the presentation,” Mr Hickes said.

India’s High Commissioner to Fiji, His Excellency Mr Vinod Kumar (far left) and SC Fiji’s CEO,

Mr Chandra Shekhar (far right) with the oratory winners

Kids Link Fiji Labasa members

6

Charity Golf in Aid of Children

Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) is organising its annual

Ambrose Golf Tournament at the Fiji Golf Club in Vatuwaqa on the 10th of August to assist

QBE Foundation Donates for Worthy Cause

The QBE Foundation has donated a sum of FJ$6,000 to Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) for assistance in the

form of partial funding for projects. The cheque was handed over to the Manager Finance and Administration SC Fiji, Esther Suchit at the QBE Insur-ance (Fiji) Limited office on the 18th of this month. General Manager of QBE Insurance (Fiji) Limited, Mat-thew Kearns, said he is looking forward to seeing the money well spent which may lead on to further funding in the future. Chief Executive Officer SC Fiji, Chandra Shekhar said the organisation is thankful for the generous donation by QBE Foundation. “SC Fiji is grateful to QBE Foundation for becoming a pillar of change to improve the lives of the children of Fiji,” Mr Shekhar said.

in raising funds for the organisation. Chief Executive Officer SC Fiji, Chandra Shekhar, said the tournament is an annual event being organised by SC Fiji for the 3rd successive year and all funds raised will be dedicated to support activities for children in Fiji. “The event provides an opportunity to corporate or-ganisations and individuals to join hands with SC Fiji in assisting the children in need,” Mr Shekhar said. He added that the event also strengthens partner-ship amongst the corporate and helps in creating awareness on what SC Fiji’s activities include to sup-port the vulnerable children. Newly appointed Fundraising Manager SC Fiji, Deo Raj Raju, said this major fundraising event is targeted to help raise funds to assist SC Fiji in continuing its work of assisting the vulnerable children of the country. He added that Fiji Sun has once again supported the charity event and other media outlets are responding well. The Vatuwaqa greens will see the best of golfers compete to win the main prize of four night’s ac-commodation inclusive of a full buffet breakfast and a

round of golf for two at the Pearl South Pacific Resort, Spa and Championship Golf Course. Other fabulous prizes include a day cruise for two with Captain Cook Cruises, accommodation for two at Novotel Lami in an Ocean View King Room and gift packs provided by Pure Fiji. “The response from corporate and other organisa-tions is great and we are currently looking for potential sponsors for the 18 holes while negotiating with the major sponsor,” Mr Raju said. He said that SC Fiji is requesting sponsorship for naming rights of FJ$10,000 allowing sponsors to gain full benefit including the company’s name flashed in media as well as the SC Fiji newsletter and website for this worthy event. “The company banners would also be displayed at the golf course and the after-match function leading to more exposure for the sponsoring company,” Mr Raju said. Mr Raju further added that the fundraising tourna-ment is also inviting interested parties for co-sponsor-ship of FJ$5,000 whereby the company will get the same mileage but will share the ‘spotlight’ with another sponsoring company. “Very exciting fundraising events have been planned for the next six months starting with this golf tourna-ment,” Mr Raju said.

General Manager of QBE Insurance (Fiji) Limited, Matthew Kearns (far left) handing over the cheque to SC Fiji Finance and

Administration Manager Ms Esther Suchit

7

A Family Visit by Review Team

Manager Programmes Hosts Training for Staff

A Programme Logic, Monitoring and Evaluation train-ing conducted by the Manager Programmes was

hosted for the Central Division staff on Friday, the 20th of this month at Save the Children Fiji (SC Fiji) Head-quarters. The training basically focused on making certain that the team are clear on the Vuli Taumada Shishak (VTS) Project and understand the link between the activities and the overall programme goal. Manager Programmes SC Fiji, Robbie Gillespie, said the one thing that the staff members want to achieve in the programme implemented is to see change. “In the end, everything comes down to change. Change in the way children are handled. Change in the lives of children and young people,” Mr Gillespie said. He added that the way to measure this change is through monitoring and evaluation of programmes which cannot be achieved without a logical framework of how to implement change. Central Divisional Coordinator SC Fiji, Meresiana Krishna, said the training has been like a refresher in our daily work. “This is a good chance to review ourselves in the type of data we are collecting and to keep on track with our projects,” she said. Mr Gillespie said building program logic is like put-ting together a puzzle.

A review team coordinated by Save the Children In-ternational (SCI) in partnership with Save the Chil-

dren Australia and New Zealand visited Save the Chil-dren Fiji (SC Fiji) from July 10-13th. The purpose of the visit was to review all of SC Fiji’s policies, procedures and management approach in or-der to work towards SC Fiji meeting international stand-ards set by SCI. “The SC Fiji Board is very committed in moving SC Fiji towards meeting high standards in programming and management. We hope that this will result in better op-portunities for the SC Fiji country organisation,” Chair-person of SC Fiji Board, Sandra Bernklau stated. “We are going to have to change in the way we are operating to become a great organization and we have quite a bit of work to do to reach there,” she added. Ms Bernklau added that the visit by the review team should not be looked at as an assessment visit where-by they check how the organisation does its work but should be seen as a Save the Children family gathering where we learn from each other. Chief Executive Officer SC Fiji, Chandra Shekhar, said SC Fiji is now one of the 29 members of SCI and has to work according to the SC International standards adopted to maintain its membership. “As a growing organisation vested with the respon-sibility of being the lead agency in dealing with child rights and protection issues, SCI has to ensure that cer-tain procedures and policies are developed.

SCI also has to make sure that these are maintained to keep the organisation accountable and responsible for its activities,” Mr Shekhar said. He added that a review was commissioned to ensure that such protocols, procedures and policies were up-dated to meet the current day to day operations. A member of the review team, Karen Flanagan of SC Australia, said the team is leaving recommendations and suggestions behind for SC Fiji to work on and will follow up with the progress through the SC Fiji Board. “SC Fiji is doing a great job with not many resources and is up to the challenge of being a better organisa-tion. With support, the organisation can reach these challenges and we will provide this support,” she said.

SC Fiji at Showcase

With its vision and focus on advocating on the impor-tance of children’s rights and values, Save the Chil-

dren Fiji (SC Fiji) setup an advocacy booth at the 2012 Fiji Showcase for the first time in partnership with Total Event Co. Along with advocating, the booth also saw an Educa-tional Toy Drive where a total of 57 individual toys were collected and about FJ$3764.30 was received through coin boxes as well as other donors, Vuli Taumada Shishak (VTS) Project Officer Nasinu, Avin-it Narayan said the Early Childhood Centres for the com-munity children set up by VTS still need basic resources to function well. “Basic educational tools such as story books, play dough, crayons, toys and many other educational items that can be used in most kindergartens are still needed which is why a toy drive was ideal for this event,” Mr Narayan said.

Review team members with children from the Early Childhood Education centres

VTS Project Officer Nasinu SC Fiji, Mr Avinit Narayan at the Showcase booth

8

Deo Raj Raju Fundraising Manager

New Staff in SC FijiSalanieta T. Bevu

Project OfficerZubnah Khan

Communications Officer

Save the Children

Headquarters25 Pender Street, Suva

P O Box 2249, Government Building, Suva.Phone: 331 3178/ 999 9468 Fax: 330 2214

Web Site: www.savethechildren.org.fjEmail:info@savethechildren.org.fj

Labasa OfficeLot 7, James Madhavan Street, Labasa.

P O Box 2076, Labasa Phone & Fax: 881 8700

Email: scflabasa@connect.com.fj

Lautoka OfficeRogorogo-i-Vuda Building, Tavewa Avenue

P O Box 2798, Lautoka.Phone & Fax: 666 9418

Email: savechildrenltk@connect.com.fj

Deo Raj Raju has recently joined SC Fiji as the Fundraising Man-

ager. Mr Raju comes with an exten-sive knowledge and experience in the radio business. He started his career as a high school teacher af-ter graduating from this field from The University of the South Pacific. He has over six years experience in high school teaching. Raju left teaching to join the Na-tional Broadcaster, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) and became a household name. Over his 10 year career at FBC he was promoted to become the Programs Director of Bula 98FM now known as Mirchi FM. In his leadership, Bula 98FM spread its wings to become a na-tional commercial radio. During his Radio career, Raju travelled exten-sively and attended the prestigious Indian Film Fare awards on many occasions. Prior to joining SC Fiji, Raju was the General Manager of Bula Na-maste FM for a period of 5 years. He successfully utilised his wide experience in Journalism, Radio Programming, Marketing and Man-agement. Raju is currently studying for his Masters in Business Administration. He is sure to build on his knowledge and experience and take the SC Fiji Fundraising to new heights

Salanieta Tuilomaloma Bevu is the Project Officer for the project

on: Eliminating the Worst forms of Child Labour in Fiji funded by Inter-national Labour Organisation (ILO). The project is currently in the ex-tension phase for a duration of 10 months. She is still pursuing her studies in Bachelor of Arts programme major-ing in Psychology and Sociology aiming to graduate in September this year from the University of the South Pacific. Prior to joining SC Fiji, she was a volunteer with Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre for a period of six months and was also on internship with Pa-cific Counselling and Social Services (PCSS).

Zubnah Khan has joined Save the Children (SC) Fiji team as the

Communications Officer. She has completed her Degree studies in Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Journalism and Man-agement/Public Administration from the University of the South Pa-cific. Prior to joining SC Fiji, she was working for the Fiji National Univer-sity’s (FNU) Communications de-partment based in Nasinu Campus. She was involved in various mar-keting and media events including regular travelling to the rural set-tlements to promote education for those in the grassroots level of the society while working for FNU. Zubnah is currently pursuing her studies in Postgraduate Diploma in Development Studies from the Uni-versity of the South Pacific.

• 10th August - Ambrose Golf Tournament

• 21st August - Child Protection Workshop

• 23rd/29th August - Staff Development Sessions

• 27th-31st August - Quality Education Workshop for VTS Team

• 6th October - Annual Charity Ball

• 16th October - World Marathon Challenge

• 22nd-26th October - Gender and Human Rights Training

• 22nd-28th September - National ECE Week