Glenn Family Foundation - My family foundation is a non-profit driven organisation

“ To give hope where there is despair; To teach the hungry to feed themselves; To educate those that wish to learn;"
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GFF IN FIJI

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During the tour of our first visit to Solevu Village, Tevita mentioned to my father that the village was going to hold a sports fund raising day on 10th October 2008. Dad’s ears pricked up at the mention of sports but he was hooked when told that the sports would be rugby for the men and netball for the women.

My father bought a family villa on Malololailai Island in Fiji in November 2007, and in January 2008 family and friends were invited over for a 2 week holiday. While we were there we arranged to go and visit the Chief (Ratu) of the island’s local village, Solevu (approx. 630 people). Malolo actually consists of two islands joined by a sand bank at low tide. Malolo is the bigger island and Malololailai is the smaller island (lailai meaning small). We were discussing the upcoming visit and dad asked me what I thought would be a good gift. Dad suggested giving bras to all the women as there is a distinct lack of them over there. Dad took that a step further and arrange for breast screening to be done for all the Fijian women who live and work on both islands and asked me to arrange it.

After the initial discussion with my father I did some research online and found a contact at the Fiji Cancer Society (FCS). I phoned and spoke to Janice Ali, the secretary of the FCS and told her about our project and what we wanted to do. Janice was happy to help us and offered to send out educational leaflets to the women and provide medically trained personnel to do the screening. Janice also put me in touch with Marilyn Curtis, President of FCS and we started talking about how to proceed.

During the progression of the Solevu Village project, Ratu Sefanaia was so grateful to my father for all the work being done to improve the village that he offered to induct my father in to his family and appointment him as a Ratu in his own right. My father’s Ratu name is Ratu Vuilawa, so named after Ratu Sefanaia’s own grandfather, which is an immense honour. My father humbly and gladly accepted this generous offer.