A decade and a half of ferrying his grandchildren to school on horseback came to an end last week for Iliasere Natabadamu when Government commissioned the community access road at Koroiveremo settlement in Nalaba, Ra.
He said for 15 years, his 12 grandchildren had travelled to school on horseback because of the unavailability of proper road access.
The $60,000 project was completed thanks to the Government and the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) Governance for Resilient Development in the Pacific (Gov4Res) project.
“My grandchildren usually travel daily on a horse to get to the spot where they can access their transportation to school,” Mr Natabdamu said.
“This is at least a daily horse ride of about 10 to 20 minutes come rain, hail or sunshine.
“In the afternoons, the journey is repeated in the opposite direction and it was quite a struggle.”
Mr Natabadamu explained that horseback was the only means of transportation and sometimes when there was a heavy downpour, their groceries would get soaked in the rain.
Sera Naula, a mother-of-two, shared that the villagers, especially women and children, faced a lot of hardships before the upgrade of their community access road.
She shared that mothers had to get up very early in the morning to prepare their children so they could get to their pick-up point in time for their transport to school.
Residents of Koroiveremo have also established a roads committee to ensure the safekeeping and maintenance of the road infrastructure.
