Financial constraints led to the huge decrease of members as they pulled out from the Fiji Nursing and Associates Credit Union.
This, according to union president Mereani Waqa during the annual general meeting in Suva last weekend.
She said one of the major challenges faced by the union over the past years was the decrease in membership numbers.
“Members have been withdrawing because of financial constraints and whatever family commitments they have,” she said.
She said they had reached out to managers in various hospitals to assist the union in increasing membership numbers.
Meanwhile, union committee chair Tagiyaco Vakaloloma said 71 members had been provided education assistance.
She said $33,900 was provided to the union to assist its members in the financial year 2019-2020.
“The highest number of members receiving the assistance was in August last year which was 25 as in July we assisted 19 members and in September and October we assisted 18 members in total,” she said.
Ms Vakaloloma said 76 per cent of the total recipients were assisted to obtain their bachelor’s degrees, while another 3 per cent were assisted to complete their master’s studies.
“Comparing 2019 with 2020, we noticed a decrease in the number of members provided with assistance as in 2019 we assisted 115 members while in 2020 we only assisted 71 members.”
