“When we talk about human security pillars, all the pillars are connected. So when we go through this pandemic, all these pillars – the economic security, food security, health security, personal security – all these is becoming an issue.”
This was shared by Varanisese Maisamoa, President of the Rakiraki Market Vendors Association, during production of femLINKpacific’s Women Human Security First series.
The series was produced following femLINK’s first round of monthly post-COVID-19 convenings since February.
During the convening, Maisamoa highlighted several intersecting issues that rural communities faced at the height of the COVID-19 restrictions in Fiji.
These issues include the linkage between unemployment, rising costs of market produce and violence.
And with many communities now returning to farm land to survive, vendors are being hard pressed to maintain vegetables at a reasonable price for consumers, while also earning a profit for their families’ needs.
“I go to Tavua too to do the selling...because there’s a lot of unemployment here in Rakiraki. We have built our new market here in Rakiraki but who to buy from?” asked Ana Kulaniloga a market vendor in Rakiraki.
“We have to look outside Rakiraki where there are people employed so they can buy our produce,” she said.
In recent years, the Rakiraki members of the Rural Women Leaders Community Media Network (RWLCMN) have often raised the difficulties communities face since the closure of the local sugarcane mill (Penang mill was closed in 2016 after significant damage to it by TC Winston).
During this pandemic, Nila Rao – an advisory councillor for the Dramasi Settlement in Rakiraki – said there were rising tensions in homes because of unemployment (due to COVID-19) and an increase in the burden of care on women.
“Everybody was home, the men were at home because most of them had lost their jobs; the children were at home and the women were mostly doing most of the work at home like cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children, the sickly and the elderly,” she said.
Maisamoa said during this period, “mental health has been affected.”
“We humans are social beings. But because of this pandemic, we stopped going to church, we stopped any gathering, we stopped [travelling], we were confined to our own space and that has brought a lot of stress and mental health issues in our personal lives.
With physical distancing restrictions in place, women who often found support from their community clubs, found themselves isolated at home and away from their support systems.
“Some women didn’t get any type of support because they couldn’t even leave their homes because the clubs [community clubs], there wasn’t any clubs going on, the place of worship was closed down.
“If everything was not in order then what happened is that the women were blamed for it and that led to domestic violence, mental stress in some cases,” Rao shared.
With restrictions still in place - and Fiji registering 8 new border-cases of COVID-19 – the three women said the only way Fiji can contain the spread of COVID-19 is to maintain recommended hygiene practices.
“[Maintain] proper hygiene [and] maybe provide awareness to all the families to continue to maintain social distancing,” said Maisamoa.
“We should support each other and work as a team,” said Rao, adding that we must all find a collective solution to counter the impact of COVID-19.