By Maxine Tuwila Lesivou.
Government’s issue of financial support through the mobile phone outlets needs to be strengthened and improved, where there is greater access to rural communities, stronger control and more consideration of the covid risks, including the fact that a significant portion of those that need the assistance may not even have a mobile phone.
These were a number of recommendations from femLINKpacific’s Rural Women Leaders Community Media Nework (RWLCMN) where some fifty women leaders from the Central, West and the North joined a two-day virtual convening, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, last week.
The network in Rakiraki, emphasized that it would have been handy for the state to have given access to their nearby shopping centre so that for instance, those from the interior could easily access the Mpaisa – rather than coming into Rakiraki Town. “Maybe access to our Waimicia Shopping Centre, which is closer and would not involve the travel expenses, and the long queues in the town,” said Fane Lomani, Convenor for Rakiraki/Ba and Tavua.
In Nadi and Lautoka, the network acknowledged Government in giving $360 because a lot of families have been affected during this time and the cash could help support them.
“However, we also noticed the misuse of money – the $360. Many young people misused the money in buying alcohol and there was a lot of overcrowding in Digicel and Vodafones shop while withdrawing their $360,” said Agu Tuinasau the correspondent for the district of Nadi and Lautoka.
“Food vouchers would have been better instead of giving out cash assistance.” She said this was a collective feedback by women leaders from Nadi and Lautoka district.
“If the government provides food vouchers, it will be for food only and not for other things like liquor and alcohol” she added.
Discussions also focused on the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 and ways these can be tackled.
The western rural women’s network which is currently facing very high community transmission, outlined that more community awareness was needed for increased vaccination rates, and that many lacked the knowledge and the information to take that extra step of vaccination.
“I mean, it took the ‘No Jab No Job Policy’ to make some run to get vaccinated,” said a network member.
“There’s still lack of information) with the vaccine and we are still seeing a lot people breaking COVID protocols” said Kamlesh Kaur, the representative from Varoka Tavarau Nahri Shaba.
Kaur added that if we follow the protocols from MOHMS and get vaccinated, we will be able to get back to normalcy since vaccination is nothing new to us.
Viti Soro a representative from the Central Division echoed this statement and said “Vaccination is not new to our lives. It started when we were small – we’ve been vaccinated… so it is not something new”.
Fifty (50) diverse rural women leaders from our ten (10) districts were meeting in the last two (2) days to further discuss their recommendations in ways to improving government assistance and COVID-19 fatalities. These recommendations included, the need for ensuring that these Women’s Human Security Priorities (WHSP) are met and addressed during this pandemic.
This national convening also looked at ways in which femTALK89FM can provide support to women leaders in accessing information as well as highlighting the issues that COVID-19 has brought forth with the theme “Feminist Media in a Pandemic: femTALK89FM, Women, ICT and Amplification – Greater Need than Ever”.
With a specific focus on COVID-19 and Budget Allocations, this convening has equipped the fifty (50) diverse women leaders to put forth their recommendations that will be presented to policy makers to action upon.
Communities represented in this convening include District Advisory Councillors (DAC), members of the LGBTIQ + community, Marama-ni-koro’s, Women living with disability, young women, members of the District Council of Social Services (DCOSS) and community health care workers.
