Viseisei Sai Health Centre

›News›Fiji Interior Overnight CCOHSI Team Trip

2017.03.25 Category: Collective Community Ownership of Health and Social Issues

The CCOHSI team undertook a trip into the interior of Viti Levu on Monday 20th to Tuesday 21st March 2017.
The purpose of the overnight trip was to conduct health promotion activities on wellness, and conduct Reproductive Health clinics, as well as to sign off on and commence Community Development Projects (CDPs). The CDPs aim to promote community ownership of health and social issues and will run for the next 6 months period in the four villages visited including: Nadala Village, Drala Village, Buyabuya Village and Koro Village, which are to be included in the CCOHSI Project.
The CCOHSI team left Viseisei at 0600 hrs driving toward the interior. Travel past the town of Tavua is almost all on unsealed, often flood damaged roads. After over 4 hours of travel by 4WD the CCOHSI team reached the Nadala Village where they were greeted by the Village Community Health Worker (CHW), Akeneta, and the Turanga ni Koro, Timoci. The workshop in Nadala included education on a broad range of topics including Non-Communicable Diseases, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Social Issues. The CCOHSI team also undertook Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice and Barriers (KAPB) Research Surveys, prior to discussions aiming to gain an understanding of the community members baseline knowledge on health and Non-Communicable Diseases in Fiji. The team also performed Sexual and Reproductive Health screening throughout the day performing Pap Smears, as well as breast examinations (total of 19 community members seen). After the completion of the education sessions, the CCOHSI mentors sat down with the community and planned their Community Development Project.
The CCOHSI team then travelled to Nagatagata Nursing station where they were kindly put up for the night by Staff Nurse Luke Qeleca.
The next morning the team split into two with half travelling to Drala Village to complete KAPB Research surveys and perform Sexual and Reproductive Health Screening (total of 17 community members seen) while the other half of the team travelled on to Buyabuya Village where they also completed KAPB research alongside signing off to commence their Community Development Project. From there the CCOHSI team travelled further into the interior to Koro Village where they met with the Koro Village Health Committee to sign off the commencement of their Community Development Project, having previously identified their project priorities. The team then were invited to go for a swim in the Ba river, which runs parallel to Koro Village, before starting the journey back to Viseisei, Lautoka.

CCOHSI team member Koroi taking pictures of the Yasawa Island group.

CCOHSI Team vehicle stopped to pick wild guava.