Education First Trust and Auckland Harbourside joint Fiji Sanitation Project

Lomawai Ablution Block Project - completed Project Champion – Aruna Pillay

Lomawai Primary School is a rural school situated between Sigatoka and Nadi. The school has a role of close to 200 pupils and has had a pit system ablution block built some 50 years ago.

The old block deteriorated over the years and recently became a major health risk that lead to local Health Authority issuing a notice of school closure if it was not replaced by new Ablution block by end of March 2014.

The school committee approached the local community and Ministry of Education to fund a new block; neither parties were in a financial position to assist.

The school Principal then approached our trustee Aruna Pillay for assistance and formal proposal was put forward for funding. The proposal entailed building four toilet units and urinals for boys and four toilets unit and shower facility for girls.

The proposal met one of the core values of Education First Trust to provide the opportunity for a safe, healthy and happy learning experience.

The Trustees approved a funding of NZD 10,000 and agreed to meet small cost overruns and provide administrative support for the project. The project was partly funded by the Rotary Club of Auckland Harbouside.

The Projects was completed in February 2014; delivered on time and at cost..

The construction of new ablution block removed the risk of school closure because of poor sanitation it also met Rotary’s key objectives of providing good sanitation that improves lives of underprivileged.

We are extremely pleased to fund and oversee construction of new ablution block that removes the risk of school closure and provide flush toilets for the first time, that we take it for granted as basic sanitation requirement.

It gave us great satisfaction to see smiles on childrens faces when they viewed the finished facilities at the opening ceremony attended by Aruna Pillay, Sursen Singh and Harjeet Golian representing Education First and the Rotary Club of Auckland Harbourside