Minister addresses Vuci village need

22/11/2010

The visit by the Minister for Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation Dr Jiko Luveni to Tailevu this week, where she handed over seven sewing machines, delighted Vuci villagers and also served to fulfill the need to generate income in this far flung rural village.

Vuci village in Tokatoka, Tailevu is about 45 minutes drive from Nausori town and has a 250 odd population.

The visit was also marked by a Talanoa session with Dr Luveni that focused on uncovering the difficulties the villagers faced.
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Minister for Social Welfare Dr Jiko Luveni hands over the sewing machines to the President of Vuci Women's Club

The urgent need for the construction of a village canteen was raised by villagers who argued that transportation problems presented a challenge in terms of accessing goods in town.

The canteen would also serve the dual purpose of generating an income for the village women.

President of the Vuci Women’s Club Ms Miliana Tuibune articulated, the transportation issues that villagers are confronted with, when trying to purchase groceries from Nausori.

“We have to pay $1.15 for one side bus fare to reach to Nausori to buy the food and sometimes when we have more groceries we have to pay for the taxi fare and that is why we always wanted a canteen in our village for easy access to groceries and at the same time provide a source of income for our women,” Ms Tuibune said.

Dr Luveni pledged her ministry’s commitment in assisting villagers to build a canteen as well as provide groceries to kick start the project.

The ministry will also assist in the extension of the village hall.

“I gathered from them that they do not have access to any shops around here, they have to go all the way to Nausori and having a canteen will also provide a means of generating income for the village women as the canteen will be looked after by the Vuci Women’s Club.

“We have budgetary allocation which supports women for income generation projects to improve their financial status so therefore when the request’s comes from the women themselves we are obliged and feel very pleased to help them out.”

Village headman Aporosa Qio heartily thanked the Minister in being proactive about helping raise the  livelihoods of villagers.

“We feel happy that this Government is addressing our problems and this is what we want,” he said.

“We can talk face to face with the Minister and explain to her what our problems are. The canteen will be a boost for development in our village and for that we thank Dr Luveni,” Qio said.

For any clarification please contact the Ministry’s Media Liaison Officer Anshoo Chandra: 9490516, anshoo.chandra@govnet.gov.fj