I am still feeling overwhelmed with all that needs to get done, with so many lose ends, but we do have the minimum funds required to keep moving forward. We did an analysis and can pay our present staff until December 2025 based on the two small grants from the UNEP and EU. The problem is the lack of flexibility on those donor grants; in contrast, GlobalGiving gives us the ability to respond to immediate community needs. The support of you, our GG family, makes it all possible. The resort covers the fuel for the Malolo site, and housing for the staff there, which helps greatly. God bless you all for trusting the world-wide reach of GlobalGiving and their donation platform!
During their half day July fundraiser, Corals for Conservation was able to raise enough to keep the promise of saving corals in the northern Fiji Islands Ba area. From the proceeds of this recent bonus event, we will now have enough funds to open a site in the north at Ba, where a US Peace Corp volunteer is stationed and willing to do follow up. She will be there for at least a year and a half more.
An example of the GG funds kicking in is that we just funded the paint for a big sign painted by the Naidiri youth for their marine park. They still need the funds to build a roof on their marine park building which houses a changing room and shower, but they also need the doors and a septic tank. C4C already got them a small US Embassy grant to build what is already there, but they under-estimated the costs. The two overseas MS students we sent them helped take the community decision to fruition and they went ahead and plastered and painted the building as it faces the road. We also recently funded another ten A-frames, planted by the youth with heat-adapted corals to support the Naidiri youth marine park with fish habitat. They have received snorkels and masks from the Environment Ministry, and they do have a locking storage room already functional. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2938347379585500
Manoa, on the left with the kids in front of the sign, works every day without pay to support the marine park, and I want to get him a stipend, as he lives by subsistence farming. So much dedication! We recently gave him a LCD projector as he gives presentations in the nearby schools, and the schools come in on field trips.
All I can say is that it is communities like Naidiri Village, and supporters like you that make it all worth the effort.
Love to all, Austin
