Changing the Culture of Violence in Fiji

Groups of youths and women have been reaching out to their communities to explain how The Virtues Project has helped them and how it can address issues facing families in Fiji. They encourage parents to listen and talk to their children using the Five Strategies to help them cope with what they are facing regarding peer pressure (especially with drug use), bullying, and violence.

Our challenge is to follow up and offer workshops to train more facilitators who can work directly with these communities, providing more information and training.

Here are some examples of activities that groups have been involved in during recent months:

• In January, a group met with Abenezer Women's group, Pran Pacific, and Save the Children Lautoka to listen and understand the challenges they are facing.
• Youth groups in Suva are establishing fundraising activities to support their work with TVP in order to combat the rising numbers of young teenagers infected with HIV due to needle sharing to inject drugs.  Recently, a 13-year-old died from HIV after succumbing to peer pressure to inject drugs.
• Facilitators are working with a group of youth from Vuci to apply The Five Strategies to their daily lives. These tools have empowered them to make wise decisions and set clear boundaries for themselves. In January, they practiced the virtue of service, helping elderly neighbours with their urgent needs, such as grass cutting, pruning trees, and raking.

• Master Facilitator, Talei, visited twenty-five families, sharing how The Five Strategies of TVP work.The focus was on developing parenting skills, especially around listening and offering companioning, the fifth strategy of TVP.
• Talei also visited Loloma Orphanage in Nadi, two women's groups in Ba and one in Lautoka, where we are establishing a network for women to collaborate and support each other’s progress making changes in their community.

Meaningful change takes ongoing support. Your donations make our work possible. Thank you for your understanding and generosity.