342 students in Nacula Island in Yasawa assisted with school supplies

342 students whose families income have been affected by COVID-19 in Nacula in the Yasawa Group have been assisted with school supplies by the Turtle Island Resort.

The supplies are worth $10,000 and a pack includes exercise books, notebooks, pens, pencils, rubbers, sharpeners, glue sticks, binders and rulers.

Managing Director, Richard Evanson says due to the effects of the pandemic on Fiji’s tourism industry, many families in the community questioned themselves whether they would be able to send their children back to school with the necessary supplies.

Evanson says many parents had gone without paid work for close to 12 months.

He says having gone to a school in the local community throughout his primary school years, he knows many of these families on a personal level and could not just sit back and do nothing.

Evanson says their teams have been supporting the local community with opening a bartering system with the villages as a means for acquiring food supplies and fuel, and supplying over $75,000 of essential food items and fishing and farming equipment.