Working with Nacula Village
Education Fund
The island of Nacula has one primary school which services all of the children from the 4 different villages. The children of Nacula are able to walk to and from school each day where as the children from the villages of Malakati, Navatua and Naisasili have no choice but to board, as the walk home can take up to 2 1/2 hours.
The government pay for the teachers, their wages and a minimal budget is allocated to the principle for grounds projects and maitenance etc. No assistance is given to families for school fees, uinforms and stationary.
For this reason, the Education Fund was established by Blue Lagoon Beach Resort as we saw a need to support the parents of these children by assisting with school fees and alike.
Unfortunately, not all families have regular income provided by employment. For many, the sale of their harvest crops, fish and also hand made items provide the only source of income. When the time comes to pay school fees, many families have no choice but to remove their children from the school until they have raised the fees required. This for some, can take weeks.
With your help, our aim is to ensure that every child on the island of Nacula will have the uniforms, stationary and their school fees paid for each year of their primary schooling.
Once these needs have been met, which we are very close to achieving, we can then allocate left over funds to maintain the amenities blocks, the medical supplies required, sports facilities and alike.
The aim is to request a small donation, anywhere from $1, and we then match the donations dollar for dollar.
You know your donations are going where they should as we have a specified education account which is governed by a representative for the school board.
Ideas for Donations
We are always very grateful for any donation that guests contribute towards the Education Fund here at the resort, but that aside, many people also ask us what they can bring as a donation/gift for the children from the primary school, the people of Nacula, the staff or the village in general. So we thought that we would assist by giving you a few suggestions.
The children who board at the primary school often have very few posessions, so clothing, school bags and pencil cases for instance are a prized possession.
Or if you can squeese any new or used items such as pillow cases, sheets or even blankets into your luggage, these would be most welcomed – especially by the boarders who live at the school from Sunday to late friday from the age of 5.
In general, clothing items are hard to come by and as the boat journey to the mainland for a family may only be achieved once every 6 months at the most, any item donated is cherished.
Sporting equipment as many have found, is definately welcomed, with the primary school hosting regular sporting events such as rugby, netball and of course, volleyball.
The Village
Blue Lagoon Beach Resort is fortunate enough to have a co-dependency with Nacula Village, the village has over 300 people who live there and relationships with the Elders, the community and also the children are apart of our daily lives on the resort.
Aside from the managers, the execuative chef and a few tradesman from the mainland, all staff come from Nacula village and for some, are experiencing their very first position within a resort environment. The excitement from the very beginning was evident with over 100 people attending interviews alone. All are incredible individuals who you will get to know during your stay, whether whilst your room is been serviced, while you are taking a boat trip or even having a drink at the bar.
You have the opportunity to visit the village when we take the guided tour each week. This is free of charge and an introduction to the ‘real Fiji’. The below is just a snippet to get you well and truely curious!
You will be taken over by boat and led through the village by one of our local guides. You will be shown things like the very first attempts at building a church by the catholic missionaries in the early 1900′s. The church was constructed from crushed, washed up coral and rocks and packed down to form walls etc.
From here you make your way through the village and visit he current 3 churches, you then visit the chief’s hut. This is by far the biggest and most elaborate hut of all and can only be used when the chief is in attendance in the village.
From here we take you through to the community hall where you will get to experience a tradtional meke preformed by the older members of the community. This is the fijian way of welcoming you into their village.
You then have a tour through the craft market where the ladies sell their hand-made arts and crafts.
We finish the tour with a 5 minute walk to the primary school where you get to meet the children in person. They do not get the opportunity to see many visitors or even visit the mainland themselves, so they genuinely love and welcome any guests who pop in to say ‘Bula’.
