Fijians in the Western Division whose lives have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic can now access basic assistance from the COVID-19 CSO Alliance Humanitarian Response Centre in Navakai, Nadi.
The centre, a brainchild of the TISI Sangam and the Fiji CSO Alliance for COVID-19 Humanitarian Response, was officially opened yesterday.
TISI Sangam president Sadasivan Naicker said the opening of the centre was timely because it would assist Fijians who may have lost their jobs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have branches all over Fiji and with the manpower we have, we can help in this program to make it successful,” Mr Naicker said.
“We are in a better position and this is the first time we have forged such partnership with the NGOs and we look forward to this partnership.”
FRIEND Fiji director Sashi Kiran said there was a need to establish the centre because it would make work easier for people who needed assistance.
She said more than 40 per cent of their food bank applicants in recent months were from Nadi and they were mostly people who had lost their employment as a result of the pandemic.
The new centre was set up to better streamline these efforts for communities in the Western Division.
It will also focus on distributing food rations, seedlings, facilitating training and providing counselling and certain legal services to those impacted by COVID-19.
