by Vilimaina Tamata
Twenty-five (25) diverse rural women leaders, members of femLINKpacific’s Rural Women Leaders Community Media Network met last week in Tavua’s District Convening for the year. “Diverse Women Shaping Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow” was the theme at the Convening.
Women leaders representing various local groups and organizations presented their views on what authentic leadership looks like and the type of political leadership they are hoping towards the 2022 Fiji General elections.
“Supporting one another, women supporting women is essential to achieving gender equality” said Suliana Nateru, a young woman leader member of our Rural Women Leaders Community Media Network. “Being a woman leader means being inclusive, some of the qualities are being supportive, encouraging youth, being responsible and hardworking”, added Suliana. When asked on political leadership, Mrs Vilisi Verebasaga said that a balance of male and female participation in decision making, as well as peoples living with disabilities was crucial to political security, as more than half of Fiji’s population are women.
Vilisi Verebasga, Tavua Rural Woman Leader speaking on equal participation of men and women in decision making spaces
Young women and mothers in the room also spoke on struggles of access to education with the drastic decrease of the government assisted e-transport top ups which were previously $98.00 per term, has now dropped to only $5.00 per term per child. Additionally, children are missing school due to little to no food at home, their parents who lost jobs due to the COVID19 Pandemic are still struggling to provide and are unable to send their children to school, this has been exasperated even further by the drastic increase in prices of sugar and flour.
“There’s many issues here in Tavua, we’ve been coming across COVID19, come across the floods, twice or thrice, our farms and home gardens have been really disrupted. Some of the families, they were not working, and there’s been an increase in food items, like sugar, before we used to buy $2 a KG, but now its $2.75, $2.99. Like the flour, the increase of price of flour from $12 and $13 TO $19, the increase of living is very high” says Unaisi Bakewa, Rural Women Leader of our Tavua Community Media Network, also representing Disabled Peoples Federation and Soqosoqo Vakamarama-iTaukei.
Women leaders further raised concerns with access to Education, as some children go more than a week using the same mask, while other children don’t have masks at all. Recommendations from the room, therefore are towards government assistance to provide free resources such as masks, meals, and sufficient e-transport top ups for children in need to enable them to attend classes, otherwise children from impoverished families are further “left behind” with access to education from what has been described as a strenuous learning experience i.e. 2021 virtual learning methods.
Young women leaders of Tavua speaking on issues affecting access to education
Further to this, according to the 2021 – 2022 the Fijian Government has allocated $1.5million for sanitary pads to be provided to all female students from Year 7 to Year 13. However, women in rural communities report that sanitary pad vouchers are only being provided to years 9 onwards, and the vouchers are enough to purchase only five in a pack. There packs were provided only once in the year 2021. Women of Tavua are requesting that government leaders follow through with the government assistance of providing sanitary pad vouchers to years 7 to year 13.
Commemorating World Water Day 22nd March 2022, Mrs Mela from Vanuakula Village of Tavua spoke on the importance of clean and running water, and as we commemorate World Water Day, Mela shares the struggles of having unclean water especially during Fiji's Cyclone Season. As water is an essential building block of existence, each year on March 22 we raise public awareness about the significance of clean water and sustainable management of this significant resource.
Communities represented at the Tavua District Convening includes members of the LGBTIQ + community, Marama-ni-koro’s, Young Women, members of the District Council of Social Services (DCOSS) and Community Health Care Workers.
