Fresh from a 10-day tour of Viti Levu – Fiji’s main island – our July cover story shares what we saw as Fijians adjust to the economic and social shocks brought about by the COVID19 pandemic. Employees of now-closed hotels and resorts who live in villages are falling back to subsistence farming and fishing. For the many more families who live outside these communities and who pay rent or mortgage in Sigatoka, Nadi and Lautoka, the adjustments are much harder. Relief offered by the Fijian Government like withdrawing their pensions while helpful, are temporary, and many are resorting to other means to earn income. They include 2014 Miss World Fiji, Charlene Tafuna’i who lost her job as an aircraft engineer at Nadi International Airport and is a regular at the VOTCITY Flea Market in Nadi. Thousands more do not qualify for pension withdrawals nor have the means to venture into business and this is where the work done by non-governmental organisations like the Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises N Development and the Then India Sanmarga Ikya Sangam in providing food packs and free school lunches respectively is life saving.
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