AS the spectre and scale of the drug crisis gripping Fiji becomes clearer, the nation’s worst-kept secret is out for all to see – the country needs all the help it can get.
Japan has stepped in to lend a helping hand through an agreement with UNICEF to help children, who have been identified as the most vulnerable members of society, stay away from drugs.
The four-year initiative from 2026 to 2030 represents a $USD5.48 million investment, fully funded by Japan.
The partnership comes at a critical time. Between May 2024 and May 2025, the Fiji Police recorded 2446 drug-related cases, including 50 involving children. School-related drug cases have risen sharply from 2400 in 2021 to 3143 in 2025.
These numbers, as UNICEF Pacific Representative Hamish Young noted, “are not just statistics—they represent young lives at risk.”
The project takes a balanced “hard and soft” approach to protection. On the hard side, it will establish child-friendly safe rooms in hospitals and private interview spaces in police stations to prevent re-traumatization of young victims. On the soft side, there will be parenting programs, life-skills development, and psychosocial services.
Over four years, the initiative will reach more than 150,000 students, provide intensive support to 10,000 high-risk adolescents, and empower nearly 3000 frontline workers—including teachers, police officers, and healthcare providers—with skills to intervene and protect.
Japan’s Ambassador to Fiji, Hiroshi Tajima, emphasized the deeper meaning behind the partnership.
“This initiative gives concrete form to Japan’s vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, where human security is the cornerstone of peace,” he said.
“It embodies the ‘Lomavata-Kizuna Partnership’—Lomavata reinforcing our unity, and Kizuna our enduring bonds of trust.”
The project aligns closely with Fiji’s National Counternarcotics strategy and the Child Justice Act of 2024, ensuring that no child falls through the cracks of the system.
Minister for Women, Children, and Social Protection, Sashi Kiran, affirmed: “We will not leave vulnerable children to face these risks alone. We will find them early, support them early, and walk with them toward safe, healthy pathways away from drugs and harm.”
In the spirit of the Pacific saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” Japan and UNICEF are now part of Fiji’s village—standing together to protect the nation’s greatest treasure: its children.