Former Resort Workers Are Thankful For $360 Assistance

Former resort worker bought toys and clothes for his two children for the first time in four months after receiving $360 Government unemployment assistance last week.

Ravuama Madigi, 30, who lost his employment as a landscaping staff at the Uprising Beach Resort in Pacific Harbour following the resort closure due to COVID-19 in April, said seeing the smiles on the faces of his two children holding their new toys and clothes was priceless.

“For more than four months I could not buy anything for my six and nine-year-old children. Things got really hard after I lost my job so the first things I bought after receiving my $360 Government assistance were toys and clothes for my children,” said Mr Madigi.

Another former resort worker, Timoci Soko, 58, said the Government assistance brought much needed relief to his family of seven. He added that the past four months had shown them the toughest side of life.

“We are surviving from the produce of our small farm at home and have adjusted to limiting our needs to what we can afford during these trying times,” said Mr Soko.

Another former staff member, Maikeli Katewai, 26, applauded the Government for the cash assistance. He did a decent amount of shopping for the first time in a long time.

The story of 51-year-old Simione Waqa is no different from his fellow mates, as he also resorted to backyard gardening for survival.

“Luckily I had a small backyard garden at home and resort management also provided us with market space to sell our produce,” said Mr Waqa.

While these former resort workers thanked the Government for the assistance, they are hoping for things to normalise and borders to open soon so all their hotel industry brothers and sisters could get back to work.

Edited by Selita Rabuku

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