Page 46 - IB April 2022

SPBD

BULA VINAKA OVALAU

A MESSAGE FROM SPBD FIJI GENERAL MANAGER,
ELRICO MUNOZ

In 2015, when SPBD Fiji was barely five years old, we visited in Ovalau and Moturiki islands for the full week, as we shall
Levuka and went around the island with one of the SPBD continue visiting the villages every week.
members – Mrs. Taraivina – who has her roots in Ovalau island. We will continue providing financial education, leadership
She wanted to share with the Ovalau ladies the different ways development and financial services in the form of savings and
SPBD has improved the lives of the ladies in Viti Levu. loans to the women of these two islands. We will continue
Five villages welcomed us with open hearts – Lovoni, to support the businesses, home improvement and children’s
Bureta, Rukuruku, Natokalau and Tokou. We started organising education to our unsecured loans.
them into centres and provided them financial education and In addition to this, we shall be designing a loan programme
loans to start their small businesses. for the women factory workers of PAFCO in cooperation with
It was a good start but unfortunately the following year the PAFCO management.
TC Winston wrought havoc to the whole island and a lot of As of now, we have 171 members in the two islands being
families were left homeless, their budding business gone with served by SPBD. With the office established in Levuka we are
the strong winds. SPBD immediately made a rapid survey to looking forward to increasing our outreach to 600 ladies by
assess the extent of the damage and planned how we can the end of this year. We have earmarked at least $900,000
help the families get back to their feet. With the help of loans to be disbursed from this office for this year alone.
some donor agencies, SPBD conducted its own relief work and The success of the SPBD programme in Fiji for the last ten
even provided some tools to target villages so they can use years is greatly attributed to the trust and close relationship
these to rebuild their homes and for sources of income. The we have built with our members, the hard work of the staff
goodwill that we created amongst the people of Ovalau was and the ongoing partnerships with other organisations which
reciprocated well by the ladies we organised. They continued share the same vision of SPBD in empowering women.
to repay their loans and encouraged more ladies to join the SPBD Fiji is greatly thankful to the Rotary Club of Suva,
programme. Rotary Club of Downtown Auckland and Rotary International
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, SPBD was already able to for providing the seed funding for the Ovalau loan portfolio.
organise seven centres in Ovalau island and even organised We are also thankful to Kiva Microfunds of USA and Good
three more centres in the neighbouring island of Moturiki. Return of Australia for featuring the stories of these ladies
The increasing number of SPBD members in the two islands on their website, so we are able to generate more funds for
encouraged us to establish a permanent presence in Levuka. lending to more members in Ovalau and Moturiki.
However, this was put on hold because of the difficulties It is our vision that in the years to come, SPBD Fiji,
associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. through its Levuka office, will be a major contributor to the
Now that Fiji’s economy has opened up again, we are upliftment of the standards of living of the people of Ovalau
honouring this commitment as we officially opened the SBPD and Moturiki.
Levuka Branch Office – the 8 branch of SPBD Fiji - on 25 Vinaka Vakalevu!
th
March 2022. The office will be serving the SPBD members

46 Islands Business, April 2022