Archives 2016

The MAA International (Muslim Aid Australia), a Non-Government Organisation has been commended by the Fijian Government for its wide assistance provided towards the rebuilding of lives of families affected by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston.

In 2015, MAA started working in Fiji through 5 major development programs and in doing so the organisation has spent over FJD $1.5 million dollars. The programs in areas of education, housing, food aid, emergency relief and sustainable development has benefited over 4000 people Fiji wide, from all ethnic backgrounds.

As part of the housing assistance, MAA International has also spend over $292,454 in rebuilding of over 50 homes for families who lost all their belongings in cyclone Winston. The handing over of the keys for the 40 new homes built in the modular homes in the Clopcott settlement in Ba. Charity homes have also been built in areas of Ra and Nadi. The beneficiaries in Ba were presented with the keys for their new homes, yesterday by Minister for Health and Medical Services, Hon. Rosy Akbar. 

Minister Akbar commended the MAA International Organisation for its tremendous support and commitment in the rebuilding the lives of families in Fiji. 

“We are very thankful to all the partners, donors and NGO’s who have helped to rebuild the lives of families and one such organisation that has made a huge impact is MAA International. So on behalf of the Fijian Government and all the families that you have assisted, I would like to sincerely thank the team of MAA International for indeed making an extraordinary effort to reachout to the needy families.

“Such housing programs greatly compliments the Fijian Governments Help for Home Initiative. We look forward for strengthened collaboration with the MAA International to further broaden the opportunities for development in Fiji,” Minister Akbar elaborated.

Director MAA International Projects, Mr Saed Khan said all the projects are based on the principles of professionalism, best practices to assist the most needy communities, regardless of race or nationality.

“We are involved in 5 different programs in Fiji and all these are open to all people and one of the first one is the provision of education scholarship grants. In 2016, we assisted 65 students with scholarships to for tertiary education and we have spent about $315,000 in this education project. In terms of assistance during emergency, after TC Winston, we have distributed 33 tonnes of food rations benefiting the local economy at the time when it was needed.

“The other project is building of modular homes, we have already built 45 of it and 15 charity homes and we also provided building materials to families and in emergency we have spent half a million dollars this year. Last year, we have also distributed 5000 food aid packs to the families here last year. In total MAA International has spent over $1.5 million in Fiji and we are committed to same amount of aid in 2017 and onwards,” Mr Khan said.

For the 80 year Mr Ram Badan, getting new home was like a prayer being answered, after being homeless for the last 7 years he was living under the Ba Bridge.

“Living under the bridge was the most difficult time of my life. I didn’t have anywhere to go so I lived under the bridge, the thought of having a home was only a dream. And now I have a new home and I now have the opportunity to live among people who care for me. I am thankful to MAA for giving me this new life. I am also assisted by the social welfare assistance and with the new home, this assistance will go a long way in enabling me to live a dignified life,” Mr Badan said.

Mr Lekima Ratu, the 56 year old fisherman in Ba has also been assisted through MAA’s housing program.

“My house was destroyed in cyclone Winston and so far I had been staying with my Indian neighbour’s house.  I am pleased that I have been assisted with the new house and I would like to thank the MAA International for this much needed assistance that is a relief for our families,” Mr Ratu said.

Each house is built with a cost of around $6000 and it has been designed by the engineers with certified standards and the structure is also expandable.

Free Medicine Program Press Statement by the Minister for Health and Medical Services

The Free Medicines Scheme is a landmark project of the Fiji First Government that was launched in 2015. The Program was introduced as part of Governments initiative to ensure equity in terms of accessibility and availability of key medicines in partnership with the Private Retail Pharmacy to citizens earning a gross salary of below $20,000 a year.

The implementation of the program was initiated by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services in partnership with other key stakeholders from January 1st 2015 with an initial budget of eight million dollars, with an initial list of 72 medicines on a Voluntary basis. From the possible 65 Retail Pharmacy, there were approximately 35 active retail pharmacy’s participating in 2015.

As per the announcement of the 2016 budget and the new fiscal year, the Minister for Finance had announced the continuation of the scheme with an increase in the number of items from 72 to 142 covering a wide range of medicines and four consumables products. Upon the amendment to the Pharmacy Profession Decree 2011 Act No. 28 of 2015 referred to Section 48 Clauses 1,2 and 3 as per gazette dated 23rd November, 2015 the participation to the scheme was mandatory to ensure we reach out to our people in all corners of Fiji. To date there are 65 registered retail Pharmacy in Fiji that would be participating in this scheme.

The medicines are targeted to cater for the ever growing need to treat and curb Non communicable diseases, common bacterial and viral infections, eye problems and to facilitate for pediatric care and emergency care. The availability of dressing materials, will allow for patients to do dressings at home, in particular for our diabetic patients who require regular dressing.

In conjunction with day to day services provided the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, the program will complement the pharmaceutical services. I see this scheme as an important aspect of my role as the Minister for Health and Medical Services in addressing and improving public perception of Government Pharmaceutical services. Such schemes would assure and bring back that trust, acceptability and credibility from our citizens of our health system in partnership with the Private sector.

Furthermore, please note that certain medicines will not be available in retail pharmacies, but is available in all three divisional hospitals (CWMH, Lautoka Hospital and Labasa Hospital). This is due to their specialty use and potential of any irrational use. The Ministry is also exploring of even having some carefully selected medicines to be made available at Sub-Divisional Hospitals where this is high demand. The Ministry is in continuous dialogue with the Retail Pharmacy as well as the Divisional Hospitals in ensuring that quality, safety and use issues are monitored on a regular basis.

We hope that you will make full and reasonable use of this service.

Thank You

For a copy of this press release please click here.

Come and join the celebrations at St Giles for World Mental Health Day, Friday 14th Oct 2016.

Increasing community based programs is one of the key strategies of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services to raise awareness on the reproductive health development. Minister, Hon. Rosy Akbar reiterates that it will be achieved through providing a comprehensive and integrated reproductive health services in communities.

“In providing an enabling environment, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services is committed towards improving the accessibility to reproductive health services. The International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) Plan of Action affirms that reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that includes the recognition of basic rights of individuals to have the information and means to access highest standard of Reproductive Health services. Fiji is one of the Pacific Island Country (PIC) signatories of the ICPD.

“The Reproductive Health Policy of Fiji explicitly supports the rights of all women and men to have access to curative and preventive reproductive health services. It also takes note of the rights of young people to have access to youth friendly services, access to reproductive health information that will help them make responsible choices and in particular prevent unplanned pregnancy, STIs/HIV.

“The role of Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s) in raising awareness at community level on Reproductive Health and Family Planning services is notable. And linking of the public sector with these organizations has significantly contributed towards improving access to services especially to those hard-to-reach vulnerable groups,” Minister Akbar said.

The Health Ministry will also capitalize on a collaborative platform to enable active participation of the communities in responding to the reproductive health issues.

“Increased awareness is the key to enable the communities to understand the impact of Family Planning on their future health, livelihood and wellbeing. Strengthening the health systems response to unmet needs in terms of specialized nurses in Family Planning through provisions of training, availability of information and guidelines on Family Planning also needs to be addressed.

“It also means increasing accessibility of counseling services at all levels of health system including the community level. And empowerment of community health workers and general awareness on booking for antenatal clinic and through the stages of prenatal and postnatal care are some of the ways the Ministry will enhance the community based programs for reproductive health services,” Minister Akbar added.

Reproductive health services in Fiji covers a wide area of health care, the main ones include:

• Safe Motherhood – encompasses maternal care and neonatal care
• Infant and child care • Adolescent health care
• Family Planning and Prevention of Abortion
• STI-HIV prevention and management, and Basic Infertility services
• Management of gynaecological morbidity – including reproductive tract cancers & infections.

The partnership between the Ministry of Health and Medical Services with UNICEF has created opportunities for enhanced learning on providing effective nutrition response for emergency preparedness.

The partnership has created a 3 days workshop called “Nutrition in Emergencies” that was held from Tuesday 20^th to Friday 22^nd September at Tanoa Plaza in Suva. A total of 25 participants comprising of representatives from Ministry of Health and nutrition sub-cluster along with stakeholders from the World Health Organisation, Fiji National University and Secretariat of the Pacific Community are part of this training.

The workshop was officially opened by the Deputy Secretary Public Health, Dr Eric Rafai. He emphasised on the importance of the training for capacity building of the nutrition sub-cluster.

“Timely and effective nutrition response is our common goal and our responsibility as the health and nutrition sub-cluster. This workshop will support strengthen our existing preparedness plan and response to emergencies in future especially during the implementation of intervention in the communities.

“This workshop is an opportunity to start identifying and prioritising key action that we see as critical towards providing effective protection of the nutritional status of the girls, boys’ women and communities in Fiji,” Mr Rafai said.

He thanked the nutrition sub-cluster members for their hardwork to reachout to the families who were affected by tropical cyclone Winston.

“Nutrition sub-cluster has continued to improve in terms of its capacity building and in mobilizing the other organisations and nutrition professionals, increase in number of interventions including capacity building to strengthen the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition. We can collectively do much more to ensure adequate support is provided to our community and the children of Fiji,” Mr Rafai elaborated.