Working with Solevu Village – Malolo Island – Stage 1
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.
We all went over to meet Ratu Sefanaia Vatunitu where he and his metaqali (council) had a sevusevu ceremony for us. A sevusevu is a kava drinking and welcoming ceremony – kava is a local plant which they dry out and grind the root of and mix with water through a cloth. During the sevusevu Dad asked if there was anything he could do to help Solevu Village. Afterwards Tevita, who takes care of the village, showed Dad a list of things that required urgent attention and took us around to show us the respective areas.
The main works involved the school, kindergarten, new ablution blocks, rugby field and netball court, water tanks and a generator. When the tour ended Dad said that he would take care of it all. He then turned to me and offered me the first GFF project in Fiji. Of course I accepted gladly.
I visited Fiji again about 5 weeks after we’d had our holiday there and I asked a builder to go to Solevu and give me estimates on what needed doing, what equipment and materials would be needed for which jobs, how long they would take to do etc.. It was a lengthy process and once I had received this report I got quotes for everything, including labour, from KKs Hardware. Kamlesh Karan (KK) is a friend of the Ratu’s since childhood and is also the manager of the village’s school and the owner of a hardware store in Nadi – how fortuitous! KK and I worked at putting together a comprehensive list of quotes/costs for all the projects requirements. At the beginning of April Dad and I returned to Fiji together and met with the Ratu and everyone else involved with our project at the village. We had another sevusevu and did another quick tour then sat down in one of the classrooms at the school and went through all the documentation I’d put together. I’m happy (and mightily relieved) to say that Dad signed off on everything and approved the project in its entirety, and a bit more too.
On 25th April 2008 during the next school holidays in Fiji when the classrooms were completely emptied the works started. It’s an exciting time and I know GFF will make a positive difference to Solevu.
The GFF goal is to make Solevu Village self supporting in terms of agricultural, floriculture, animal husbandry so they can sell in the local market and in the long term be self funding
Below is a condensed list of works:
School/Library/Kindergarten/Teacher’s Staff Quarters
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Gutting the classroom interiors and completely refurbishing them from repainting the walls to providing power for new fans and lights and laying down new linoleum.
Cleaning and repainting exterior walls, replacing all the guttering to capture rain run-off in one new and two pre-existing water tanks, replacing and fixing all the louvre windows and frames.
Building 2 new ablutions blocks with toilets and showers, one for girls and one for boys as well as installing new septic tank.
Donating approx. 12 computers to the library and connecting to the internet.
Buying and installing a new generator for the school and looking in to doing the same for the village.
Providing a new water tank to place next to the bore hole/well. |
Rugby Field and Netball Court
Resizing/extending the rugby field to regulation size and leveling the ground.
Putting up new goal posts and marking the field.
Moving the netball court to where the kindergarten is now, surfacing with turf and putting up new goal hoops.
Suze Glenn
Glenn Family Foundation
GFF Fiji
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