Children of Wainibuku Housing Assistance and Relief Trust Community will now have a safe place to play in after Save the Children Fiji created two Play‑Safe Spaces with support from the Australian Government’s Fiji Community Development Program.
Save the Children Fiji brought the children and other members of the Wainibuku HART community together in February this year to develop a Community Development Plan.
Bullying amongst children within the community was identified as a problem that needed to be addressed during this process and this led to a proposal to establish two safe places for the children to play and to express themselves.
The Play‑Safe Spaces proposal was developed in consultation with and endorsed by the whole community, including the children, women’s group, youth group, men’s group and persons with disabilities.
A HART resident and single mother of four, Toga shared her joy with the newly installed Play‑Safe Spaces.
According to Toga, she can count on the play spaces to provide a place for her four children from the ages of four to 10 years to play.
She says it will bring children together in one spot where they can easily be monitored by their parents.
She says many of the residents at HART are single mothers.
Australia’s High Commissioner to Fiji Margaret Twomey says this space signifies the importance of children’s voices being heard in their communities as it was the children of Wainibuku HART themselves who identified the need for such a space.
Twomey says the different physical activities that the children can do with the equipment will also help them to maintain happy and active lifestyles and develop their sports and social skills.
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