Yasawa Hub Achievement Report

July 2014
Objective: Promotion of Environmental Awareness

Local Communities celebrate World Oceans Day
Summary: The 8th of June each year is the UN World Oceans Day. The aim of World Oceans Day is to
celebrate the Ocean, its importance and how we can protect it. To mark this occasion GVI hosted a special
event alongside a regional sports tournament, delivering interactive activities and awareness for both adults
and children from nine villages. The ocean is a precious and critical resource for remote island communities and
World Ocean Day provided the perfect opportunity for GVI volunteers to work alongside the people of Nacula
Tikina to raise awareness about the importance of preserving it for future generations.

Once a year the three primary schools in the Nacula Tikina get together for a rugby and netball
tournament, attended by approximately 300 children and parents from 9 surrounding villages. This
tournament fell a few days before World Oceans Day so GVI used this opportunity to create a large
scale awareness event alongside the tournament, with the hope of reaching community members
from throughout the district.
The event brought together all three GVI projects based in the Yasawas with the common goal of
delivering environmental awareness whilst celebrating the ocean and having fun. Volunteers from
the Marine Expedition, Community Expedition and the Education Enrichment project put their heads
together to plan a series of engaging and interactive activities for community members of all ages.
All the volunteers from Tovuto Base were involved and the day before the base common room was a
hive of creative activity.
On the day there were plenty of activities for the children and adults to get involved with in between
their rugby and netball matches. For the younger members of the community GVI volunteers put on
themed games such as shark bingo, and sea snakes and ladders to get everyone excited about the

ocean. They also had the chance to get creative by making sea-creature masks and hand-printing
jellyfish and for those who enjoy singing, GVI volunteers taught them a special song about all of
Worlds oceans. For those who were interested in SCUBA diving, an artificial seabed was created
inside a big tub so the children could have a go at breathing through a SCUBA unit whilst looking in
the water-filled tub to simulate the real thing. Another group of GVI volunteers promoted sea weed
farming to the adults by showcasing informative posters and teaching community members how to
tie seaweed lines. There was also a plastic waste team who gave demonstrations on how to weave
waste food wrappers into purses as an alternative use for the plastic waste that often ends up in the
ocean.
Each week GVI volunteers teach marine conservation classes at schools in the district but on this
occasion, instead of raising awareness about marine issues, the focus of the day was intended to be
a purely positive one. The children went home excited about what is under the sea and it was a
great opportunity to discuss several alternative livelihood schemes with their parents.

The objective of the projects in Fiji is to assist villagers in the creation of sustainable infrastructure
through water security, education support, and resource management/conservation. Events such as
this use a holistic educational approach to help raise awareness on the importance of conservation.
This event helped contribute to GVIs goal to help contribute to sustainable management of marine
resources through primary school education and awareness.

For more information on GVIs
projects in Fiji please visit
www.gvi.co.uk
For more information on our
global impact visit
www.gviworld.com
To make a donation to our
projects in Fiji please visit
www.gvi.org for more details.