People who are knocking off from work and going directly to the yaqona session is a concern because it is breaking families, the government has to note this because if families are breaking – it’s the breakdown of the nation as well.
National Director for Marriage Ministries and Adult Teen Challenge Fiji Director Matai Akauola highlighted this during fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan when asked about the status of marriages in Fiji.
He says previously there were small groups but there are several groups drinking yaqona and it's even going down to the schools as well where they raise funds in kava barrels.
Executive Director Hemraj Mangal says sometimes time is invested in the wrong place which leads to no quality time spent by parents with their children and vice versa.
Mangal says they had gone to a restaurant where a couple were only looking at their social media not interacting with each other and we need to bring back the quality family time in our communities.
When asked about the social and moral decay connected to a lot of children on the streets with addiction to drugs, Akauola says it’s like a pandemic, and it’s now visible compared to before.
He further says children are on the streets roaming around at 1am.
He says this is not only the government or the church's problem and the community needs to come up with a strategy to solve this issue.
