Road upgrade brings joy to parents of Maniava

A decade-long struggle of sending their primary-aged children to a boarding school will now be a thing of the past for parents of Maniava Settlement in Tokaimalo in Ra.

This was made possible through the recent completion of an $80,000 road project by Government and the United Nations Development Programme.

For the past 10 years, these children would only reunite with their parents on weekends because of the difficulty of getting to and from school. Maniava Settlement district advisory councillor Waisake Raikadroka said this was a very challenging time for parents but this road project brought much relief.

“Our children used to go and camp in school and we would take turns in looking after them,” he said. “All because we didn’t have a proper road for our children to get to school.

“In the past, when we took some things to town, we would carry them on our back or transport it on horseback. It was a very challenging time.”

Other residents particularly mothers are very happy with this development in their interior location. Mother-of-four Asena Ragia said: “I can vividly remember that after giving birth to my second child, I had to carry her and walk for at least 30 minutes from where the vehicles dropped us to get home,” Ms Ragia said.

“Whenever we had to go for clinic, we would carry our infant children on our backs to walk to the nearest health centre then we would walk back in the hot sun.”