Foundation for the Education of Needy Children in Fiji

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Fenc Fiji is a non-political, not-for-profit, cause-oriented, voluntary organisation with a mission to provide education and related support to the under priviledged children of the Fiji Islands.

Programs and Activities

Over the past few decades, poverty in Fiji has progressively increased to approximately 40%. The education of children of poor families is a major concern to the nation, as increasing numbers of children continue to drop out of school. Only 49% of children manage to complete secondary education. It is estimated that 10% of 6 – 12 year olds drop out of school for various reasons. Poverty is recognised as the lead factor in contributing towards school dropouts. Many programmes around education focus on structural development, capacity building of schools. Despite the fact that school structures and access to education have improved, the poorest children continue to drop out of school for several reasons; in particular, the lack of resources and support facilities they require for schooling. Whilst development-focused approaches have been successful, they develop over time. In the process, these systems create a ‘time vacuum’ for the poorest children during which their educational needs remain neglected leading to failure and ‘drop-outs’.

In response to the identified gap in services for the education of the poorest children, the proposed programme of Fenc Fiji is underpinned by a philosophy of a holistic development of the child. Furthermore, Fenc Fiji will adopt a needs-based approach with the intention to address the developmental and attitudinal domains of the child, synthesising their knowledge skills and values. The activities of the organisation represent value for money in that there is a consistent and comprehensive deepening of learning, both in terms of the variety of activities, and in terms of the reinforcement of child-development components and experiences over time. Each planned Programme Activity/component will contribute to more than one Programme Objective.

A. Database of the poorest of the poor children in Fiji

Fenc Fiji will continue its research activity and update the data base progressively on an annual basis with a view to developing a comprehensive national data base on the poorest of the poor in Fiji. The information will be available to agencies and institutions for specified purposes. This process intends to facilitate collaboration between CSOs, Donors and the Government in order to forge more genuine dialogue and partnerships for constructive engagement on pro-poor policy issues and direct action. The process will facilitate information exchange by creating avenues for sharing of reliable, accurate and consistent information database with a web-site of activities and interests as well as available resources. The information generated will be packaged for easy access by CSO’s and institutions.

B. The Child Education Support Scheme and Related Activities intend to improve the status of the poorest children, thereby enabling them to become contributing members of our society. By developing children to their fullest potential will enable them to create opportunities, contribute towards a healthier workforce and reduce poverty levels.

B 1.) The Child Education Support Scheme will focus on targeted assistance for the poorest children of primary school age (6 – 13 years). However, secondary school children will be considered on a progressive basis. The intention is to build upon primary school children and support their studies through secondary as well as tertiary levels. The objective of this programme is to provide necessary provisions children require for schooling.

B 2.) The Related Activities will focus around building the capacity of families of the poorest children through training, income generation and family–specific activities. In the process it will empower and enable families to become self-supporting and emerge out of poverty situations. Community programmes will focus on developing structures that will provide necessary support to the poorest children. We will achieve this by:

Implementing research, awareness and educational support programs in conjunction with professionals, institutions and agencies.
Initiating cutting edge programmes that produce both short, medium and long term results
providing a network of education, care and support for the poorest children and their families

Our philosophy is to target support on selected programmes that are innovative, sustainable and which produce tangible results. The following activities have been identified and may be expanded include:

Establishing community support groups to cater for the poorest; a network of community ‘Cells’ that will provide support for the poorest children and their families. These Cells will constitute of village leaders, advisory counsellors, and community leaders entrusted to provide advice and coordinate services with FENC staff.
Establishing volunteer tutors within communities to assist the poorest children with their studies as well as identifying specific needs;
Developing community learning centres in communities where physical structures are not conducive to learning and child development;
Developing income generating activities for poor families through referrals to CSO/Government managed programmes;
Establishing a child to family link programme;
Coordinating family development training for poor families in partnership with local institutions;
Identifying critical family needs such as food, water and shelter and taking appropriate action

Whilst the above activities will be conducted by a network of volunteers, the programme will be managed and monitored by FENC staff who will provide training, develop referral systems, network with CSO’s and Government institutions. Operational guidelines will be established to ensure constructive engagement of communities and institutions and encompass national and international instruments to ensure protection of children/families and FENC Fiji operations.

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Updated: 23/02/2010