Animal Welfare and Community Development Project Fiji

I'm raising money to volunteer with the charity Think Pacific, for four weeks starting in July 2017.

Think Pacific aim to make a positive contribution to immediate needs and improve local resources and infrastructure in rural Fijian communities .So far Think Pacific have increased literacy levels by 40% and enabled 1000 children to receive early years education to name a few achievements. During my visit I will be working for Think Pacific providing one-to-one tuition helping children to improve their reading and writing ability, establishing kindergarten programmes in my village and leading daily youth activities.

In addition I plan to use the skills I have learnt so far in my veterinary degree to carry out a pilot research project. I will be educating the local community about companion animal care, running workshops, games and interactive sessions I hope to refine effective and adaptable education tools. I will present my work to the Fijian animal chairty the SPCA at the end of my project in the hope they will adopt and continue to implement the curriculum. In this way I hope my work will improve the welfare of cats and dogs long term.

The money I raise will be used to support over 20,000 children in Fiji living in hardship each year. Including the purchase of educational resources and sports equipment for rural schools, providing teacher training, improving school facilities and funding early years education for over 1,000 children. As well as funding the purchase of resources for my research project the money will also be used to cover my individual volunteer costs during the project. To enable us to fully participate in the community we stay with a Fijian family while working on the project and therefore this money is used to financially compensate them for their hospitality.