Fiji Hub Achievement Report - Babale

February 2017
Objective: Community Enrichment

'Community Project Work Recommences in Dawasamu District'

Objective:

January 2017 GVI's Community volunteers have been able to return to project work in
Dawasamu District, with their primary goal being to complete the installation and
maintenance of all recycling points in the district, while also providing accompanying training
through 3 stages of interactive workshops to willing participants.

Summary:

GVI have been able to reinstate their community project in Dawasamu District, with the
completion of recycling points built in various villages and planned builds for villages still
waiting.

Report:

Prior to Cyclone Winston, which struck Fiji in February 2016, GVI had managed to establish
an extensive waste management programme which was in operation in all 10 villages of
Dawasamu District, Tailevu, Fiji. Obviously the category 5 cyclone had devastating effects
on all areas of the community, including the recycling points that GVI had built in all villages
participating in the waste management programme. Immediately after the cyclone the
community's, and GVI's, priority was for all villages to begin the clean-up process to help
make a safer environment for everyone. However, in a few short weeks GVI's community
partners in Silana Village expressed their eagerness to restart the recycling projects that
they were working so hard on. GVI's first step was to assist each village with a tin collection,
as scrap roofing tin and debris was littering the region. Members of each community readily
collected the tin from their village in to one central location, and this was then collected by
a truck, organised by GVI, and taken to Suva to be recycled.

At this time GVI's Community team also began working in villages in the Dawasamu District
to repair recycling points, starting with Silana Village in May 2016. Several villages had their
points repaired and all villages were visited to assess damage and rebuilding needs.
Unfortunately, due to the limited number of volunteers that could be housed at GVI's
temporary base, community project work had to pause shortly after this, with tin collections
continuing due to continued support and enthusiasm by our community partners in Silana.

We are proud to say that since January 2017 GVI's Community volunteers have been able to
return to project work in Dawasamu District, with their primary goal being to complete the
installation and maintenance of all recycling points in the district, while also providing
accompanying training through 3 stages of interactive workshops to willing participants.
The first recycling point to be built this year was in the village of Natadradave and one at
DDS School both of which took 3 days to be completed, with the help of 3 to 4 GVI
volunteers 3 community members and at DDS 2 members of the Fijian Army who were
working locally. Prior to the build commencing GVI staff and volunteers undertake surveys
in the villages to assess their current waste disposal methods and arrange workshop times
and suitable location of the recycling point. The workshops are open to anyone in which GVI
outline the benefits of recycling as well as presenting the information about the
community's current methods of disposing of waste materials.

This information is tracked throughout and presented back to the communities from start to
completion of the workshops. Each village and school is offered the opportunity for GVI to
build a recycling point if they are interested and willing to assist. After the recycling point is
fully operational, GVI staff and volunteers return to site and deliver training sessions which
explain which items can be recycled and also promote 'reduce' and 'reuse' as more desirable
options than 'recycling'. GVI also discuss how to create a compost from waste food
materials which will be beneficial when growing crops. Another important aspect of these
training sessions is that responsibility for the recycling point is given back to the village as
they are encouraged to assign community volunteers to each role in Clean Village
Committees, for example Chairperson, treasurer and monitoring the fullness of each
recycling bag and checking that the recycling point is in good condition and signage is clear.

By the end of May 2017 GVI aims to have rebuilt recycling points in all 10 villages and both
primary schools in Dawasamu District and to have delivered the accompanying training. The
long-term aim of GVI's waste management project is that nominated members of each
village will be in contact with one another and when enough villages have full bags of waste
they will pull together their resources in order to hire a truck to take the bags to Suva for
recycling. GVI have a 6 month target to make this a reality in Dawasamu District (by July
2017).
Alongside the community team's waste management programme they have also recently
created and begun delivering Climate Change workshops, enabling the communities of
Dawasamu to have more awareness about natural disasters, and ensuring their
preparedness. Throughout January the first community volunteers this year were an
integral part in researching, formulating and trialling this workshop, which was requested by
members of the communities we work with. An important aspect of this session is focused
around community members having access to a 'Cyclone Box' which contains useful items
which would be of great benefit if another natural disaster was to hit the area. This month
they have been able to get out to Nataleira, where they have delivered the training to the
three individual settlements on separate occasions. In the next week they have also
arranged to visit the villages of Lolomolevu and Driti. The training has been received
exceptionally well so far and we are confident that it will continue to prove worthwhile as
we work our way around Dawasamu District.