Street Kids in Suva

Donation-in-Kind containers to Fiji

From Peceli

Street Kids in Suva

Next month we are sending a container to Fiji from our Donation-in-kind depot in Geelong, half for the Street Kids in Suva and half for Mali Island school and Community Centre project.

Last year I visited a boarding house in Rewa Street for the street kids in Suva. The manager told me that about thirty street kids stay there and some casuals come just to sleep in the night and leave in the early morning ( the shoe-shine boys.) This three story brick house uses the basement for the casuals with mattresses and the second floor for the permanent and on the third floor for the manager. On the side there is a workshop of welding and car repairs. The 'permanent' street kids attend welding classes and furniture making and computer learning. I talked to some of the shoe-shine boys about their future, encouraging them to go back to study.

Who are these street kids who haven't got homes of their own? Like many countries, young people from the rural areas go to the cities for education or work and many don't find work. Girls and boys. In Suva the church groups help look after girls in this situation and boys aged from about fourteen to twenty-five may find themselves at the Street Kids house in Rewa Street.

We sent a container a couple of years ago for this project in Suva, with beds, mattresses, books, clothing etc.

Mali Island District School Labasa

The remote Mali Island District School is near Labasa my home town. I happened to visit the Mali Island villages and the District School last year and they have requested school-books, tables, chairs, beds, computers for the school, and sewing machines etc. for the Community Centre. So in March half the container will go to these projects.