Pacific Recycling Foundation has welcomed the Government’s $200 per child back-to-school initiative for families with a combined income of $50,000 or below.
The Founder, Amitesh Deo says they do appreciate the efforts of the previous government to make education free where students are no longer required to pay school fees and buy textbooks for early childhood, primary and secondary education, but the recent announcement will further boost the morale and encourage parents to send their children back to school.
According to Deo, these families will now be able to purchase new bags, uniforms, shoes, stationery and other necessities for their children, and the back-to-school experience for these children will be surreal.
Deo says this initiative will ease the financial burden and bring huge relief to many families, particularly those from vulnerable communities who usually find major difficulties in purchasing school supplies during this time of the year.
Deo says that it will bring smiles to the faces of those children whose parents are involved in informal waste picking and collect recyclables from dumpsites and other locations as their main source of income.
He says they work very closely with these individuals and are aware of the struggles they go through to put food on the table for their families.
Deo says they already confirmed that their teams will be available to help people in accessing and filling out back-to-school support application forms, particularly those from the waste picking community.
He says they recently visited families in Rakiraki, Ba, Lautoka and Sigatoka that are involved in informal waste picking and most of them highlighted and shared stories of their daily struggles, some linked directly to the increasing cost of goods and services.
Deo adds they are looking forward to holding discussions with the new Minister for Education, Aseri Radrodro, regarding PRF’s Recycling on the Go Ambassadors program in partnership with Swire Shipping.
This program was implemented in Jai Narayan College last year and there are plans to expand it to other schools this year.
