SEA program, Rural Housing Assistance and Rural and Outer Island Development Program will improve livelihood - Ditoka

The Seafarers Entrepreneurs Assistance, Rural Housing Assistance Program and the Rural and Outer Island Development Program will implement strategies and efforts to reduce poverty, reduce rural-to-urban drift, improve livelihood and enhance economic growth in the rural and maritime areas.

While announcing these three new capital programs, Minister for Rural, Maritime Development and Disaster Management Sakiasi Ditoka says this assistance is for any community in the maritime, coastal and riverbank communities.

Ditoka says the SEA program will subsidise the purchase of fully equipped and operational fiberglass boats for Fijians living in the maritime regions to improve transport accessibility and access to markets by promoting a safe and inclusive environment for traveling and business ventures.

He says the applicants can be either individual or community where they will be required to pay one-third contribution in cash and can be either for boat only, the engine only or boat and engine whereby the boat can either be wooden or fiberglass with a Class 6 Boat Master Licence and Fishing license if the purpose of boat is for fishing.

The Minister says the balance will be paid by the government.

Ditoka says the Rural Housing Assistance program is to promote safe, resilient, adequate and affordable housing for the rural and maritime areas, reduce disaster risks for rural vulnerable communities, provide affordable shelter to the remote deprived rural dwellers and facilitate access to basic utilities and critical services, provide disable friendly shelter to our vulnerable communities and provide capacity building opportunities to assist members of the rural communities to build resilient and safe houses.

He says this is for people who do not own a home (first-time owners), whose house was damaged from previous natural disasters and need assistance for new house construction or repair and retrofitting, those who own a house that requires addressing safety issues for vulnerable family members such as elderly, disable, women and children through the extension of their existing houses to include kitchen, toilet and bathroom facilities, those who owns a house that requires retrofitting and who need assistance for cartage of housing materials given his or her remote location from business centers.

He says this is to improve living standards through more economic empowerment activities, improve rural infrastructure, market access, promote value-adding activities, improve community resilience through disaster risk reduction and risk-informed development through more awareness and training.