Our Volunteer Projects in Fiji

The best way to embrace Fiji is in Sigatoka, where you will get familiar with the culture and people of Fiji. During this week we will explain the do’s and don’ts regarding safety and transport.

Various crafts give Fiji a unique identity that along with traditional etiquette and local architecture tells a story of culture and its evolution over time.

You will be invited to join a kava ceremony during your stay. After the formalities, this is a wonderful way to make new friends and learn a little more about their countries.

Dig a little deeper and see what you can discover! Visit the Fijian markets, attend a weaving class, learn the Fijian language and cooking and get to know about your projects.

The week consists of three days of activities to introduce you to the Fijian culture and surroundings and also for you to interact with your fellow participants. During the last two days of the week, you will be visiting your project and commence your work.

Schedule

Monday to Friday
Highlights:

● Introduction regarding the culture and people of Fiji

● Sessions on safety, transport and do’s and don’ts

● Sigatoka town and the village

● Attend a weaving class

● Attend a class to learn Fijian language and Fijian cooking

● Experience a traditional Fijian welcome ceremony called “Kava Ceremony.”

● Make friends around the world! – take part in our cultural exchange session where you share your culture with your fellow participants

● Visit your project placement sites and get to know the projects you will be working upon

This schedule can be changed and/or amended depending on weather conditions, local conditions and unforeseen circumstances.

Fiji has over 700 primary schools and 150 secondary schools spread across both the public and private sectors.

Most expats send their children to private schools, with the majority selecting the international schools located in either Sigatoka or Nadi. Public schools in Fiji are open to expat enrolment but are rarely used due to somewhat erratic educational standards.

Furthermore, parents are often reluctant to send students to these schools as they find the curriculum one-sided and children who regularly move in and out of school systems may find the experience limited. While public schools are theoretically mixed-race, socio-economic issues and the geographic distribution of ethnic groups mean that, in practice, the schools often comprise a single race.

In many villages, there will be a small school with teachers doing their best to serve the students spread across a variety of educational levels.

Fiji is a country in much need of external help, especially with its young population. You will experience life in both the rural and urban areas, which is quite different from the average journey followed by a tourist.

Most locals in Fiji can’t afford to travel and in the villages, there is little chance of contact with the outside world. Your teaching will enable students to form relationships with someone from another culture and the teachers can learn different teaching methods and techniques. You will mainly assist the regular school teacher, so you do not need to have any teaching background.

The children in Fiji are in desperate need of two types of teachers, those with experience and those without, we have found both can make a very significant and worthwhile contribution.

The experienced teacher will find the freedom to be creative and design their own lesson plans, a refreshing change for some of our more mature participants, who tell us it takes them back to the “good old days”.

Those with less or no experience will have whatever support and guidance are needed from our Teaching Centre, a relaxed environment matching the Fijian way of doing things, but with up-to-date teaching methods from experienced teachers. You have to love children and understand their behavior, as you will be surrounded by loads of them every day and their friendliness can sometimes become over-exuberant, but they are children after all.

Schedule

Monday to Friday

You may choose to focus on music, arts and crafts or any expertise which you already have. You will teach primary school students. As a teaching assistant, you will follow a customized timetable. You will be spending part of your day in a formal teaching setting and you will therefore have to follow the Fijian Ministry of Education’s formal dress code.

Program Activities

● Planning lessons

● Doing crafts

● Computer classes

● Conversation

● English language teaching

● Level exams

● Dynamic activities

This schedule can be changed and/or amended depending on weather conditions, local conditions and unforeseen circumstances.

Fiji is a country in much need of external help, especially with its younger population.

You will experience life in both rural and urban areas, which is quite different from the average journey followed by a tourist. Most locals in Fiji can’t afford to travel and in the villages, there is little chance of contact with the outside world. You will enable students to form relationships with someone from another culture and the teachers can learn different teaching methods and techniques.

You will mainly assist the regular school teacher, so you do not need to have any teaching background.

The class sizes are large at the kindergartens so it’s difficult for the local staff to give each child as much attention as they need.

Your work here is to provide a helping hand by looking after and caring for the children. It is also the perfect opportunity to put any skills and interests you have to use, whether you make arts and crafts, or teach games and songs to the children – your suggestions will be well received. By showing initiative and enthusiasm the options are endless.

You can work on achieving the goals set out in the Kindergarten Plan, including running educational games and group activities, providing emotional support, and helping to improve the quality of life for those living in deprived communities. Some of the activities during the program could be teaching basic English, planning activities for the understanding of English, playing games with the children, organizing dynamic age-appropriate activities, developing students’ conversation skills or helping children relate to the English language, etc.

Schedule

Monday to Friday

Begin your day’s scheduled work at the local kindergarten at 9 in the morning. Your session along with the kids will go on until 11 am. During these hours, you can bring along with you various educational materials which you have prepared along with the other participants the previous day. The educational materials or educational concept games can be taught to the children and they would love to learn new things everyday. Almost every day, at about 12 noon, depart for lunch which will be served at our center. During later half of the day, you can prepare lesson plans for the children for the following day.

This schedule can be changed and/or amended depending on weather conditions, local conditions and unforeseen circumstances.

We have initiated the construction project to support the local community by sheltering those in need and start reconstructing some of what had been lost during the cyclone disaster.

This project is based in the Sigatoka area and is a fantastic opportunity to provide tangible benefits and assistance to the local community in general and schools in particular. Bring out your carpentry skills and participate along with the local community in the construction project.

In addition to the basic project, you may also take part in landscaping the surrounding area, painting local schools and renovating classrooms. Many of the schools we work with do not have the funding to renovate their classrooms or build libraries and resource centers and this is where you can participate. In the past, we even built a library for a village school.

In many areas of Fiji, thousands of families live in inadequate accommodation and children attend school in crumbling buildings. Our construction project allows them to move to new, better-quality homes and for the children to receive an education in secure, new classrooms. On average, you will be working for about 6 hours a day on the project.

Schedule

Monday
On Monday, after breakfast, you will start planning the project with the coordinator assigned to you. Once you plan the project and receive the relevant information, you can have lunch and then leave to work at the community location. Once your work for the day is complete, you can return to the center and attend a meeting where you can provide feedback regarding the first day at your placement.

Tuesday to Friday
Your day will begin a bit early. You will be taken to our project site and assigned particular tasks for the day. A coordinator will be around to guide you during the project. After lunch, you will work at the community location where you will continue with construction and renovation activities.

This schedule can be changed and/or amended depending on weather conditions, local conditions and unforeseen circumstances.