People on the island of Rotuma made use of 24 Government and non-government ser­vices offered in the past two weeks – some of the services were never offered on the island.

About 1000 people were served in all the seven districts through the Rights, Empowerment and Co­hesion (REACH) project – an ini­tiative by the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation in partnership with the United Na­tions Development Programme.

Funded by the Government of Japan, the project meant that peo­ple forgone thousands of dollars to enquire services that could only be accessed in the mainland.

Officiating at the opening of the last REACH mission at the Ahau Government Station yesterday, the Ministry’s Director for Women, Selai Korovusere, said it was im­portant for people in Rotuma to put the advice they had been given into action.

“These last two weeks have given us moments in time. Moments in our lives as individuals and service providers and recipients of the ser­vices. Moments here on the island of Rotuma,” she said.

“To some, this may be just another Government trip, another group of officials visiting Rotuma, people coming to speak to us about edu­cation, sexual offences, women’s empowerment, social protection, managing finances in addition to providing services.

“Make the change. Be the change agent and bring about change in our homes, in our schools, in our Districts and communities and be the change for Rotuma.”

Ms Korovusere said it was a huge milestone achievement for the Gov­ernment in providing essential ser­vices on the island.

“The objective of REACH is to un­dertake awareness raising and ser­vice delivery to targeted groups of the Fijian community that face dif­ficulties in accessing social justice services from various Government Ministries and non-state actors with the ultimate aim of “Leaving no one behind,” she said.

Meanwhile, the last REACH mis­sion on the island was in 2017 but it did not offer many services as it did in their latest travel.

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