Eight people living in Koroipita, Lautoka, are progressing well as pioneers of a work placement system.

This progress is attributed to Aspen Medical Fiji where the eight people are employed as non-technical staff at the Lautoka Hospital.

Three of the eight people in the group have physical disabilities.

In a statement released last week, Aspen Medical Fiji’s Chief Executive Officer, Annette Owttrim, said the group had been employed since April as Central Sterile Supply Department (CSSD) attendants at the Lautoka Hospital.

“It has been fulfilling to see these pioneers from Koroipita taking this opportunity with both hands.

“The shy and nervous individuals have been transformed into confident and meaningful members of our team,” Ms Owttrim said.

“Aspen Medical will continue to work with our communities to provide an opportunity for employment.”

“Our bold target is to have 20 per cent of our non-clinical workforce for people with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

Koroipita Homes manager Susan Naidu said the residents were trained by a senior nurse at the Lautoka Hospital, and once everything settled down, the group would be assigned shift work.

“We got to know about this because MTCT (Model Town Charitable Trust)  is part of this stakeholder group for organisations who work with people with disabilities.

So, at Koropita or MTCT, we intentionally admit a lot of families who come from very disadvantaged backgrounds.

“Hence, it enabled us to fulfil Aspen’s requirements during recruitment process,” she said.

“They have had eight weeks of training already and I was told that they have mastered the skills. They will be working as technician attendants where they do all the preps for the surgically equipment.

This is not a cleaning job, it’s quite technical it requires a lot of discipline.”

Meanwhile, Ms Naidu said the Koroipita stage 4 project in Naikabula, Lautoka, would be completed by 2024, with three houses completed so far.

The project was initially launched in March this year.

Feedback: salote.qalubau@fijisun.com.fj