Page 27 - IB April 2021

Education Education

NEAR HORIZONS

VUNILAGI’S COMMUNITY LITERACY EFFORTS
By Samantha Magick

“Our children are valuable and we have the responsibility
to ensure that they are educated; that they have the basic
needs to go through school.”
That’s the firmly-held belief of Vunilagi Book Club founder
Mariana Waqa, who for four years has worked with a group of
volunteers to bring high-quality books and literacy programs
into a sprawling Suva informal settlement.
The settlement in which they work, Nanuku, is just three ki-
lometres from Suva’s city centre and a stone’s throw from the
University of the South Pacific. USP academics Nicholas Halter
and Anawaite Matadradra have written of the challenges that
face the people of Nanuku: most live below the poverty line
and suffer social stigma and discrimination for that reason.
Few residents have toilets, running water or electricity. “The
settlement can also be dangerous,” they write, “with regular
instances of substance abuse, violence and criminal activity.
In some cases, families can leave the settlement suddenly,
forced by financial difficulties or domestic crises to move.”
While Fiji’s literacy level is high, estimates range between
91% and 99%, the story is different for many children in infor-
mal settlements. In Nanuku, “in some cases, children above
the age of six were struggling to recognise phonics, and chil- Photo: Vunilagi Book Club
dren as old as fourteen were unable to read independently,”
Halter and Matadradra write, attributing this to overcrowded at home. I didn’t see one children’s book in any of the homes
classrooms, inadequate school libraries and the children’s liv- that I went into, so that was just something that was in the
ing conditions. back of my mind.”
Mariana Waqa started the Vunilagi Book Club after she spent Back in Australia where she was studying at the time, she
seven weeks surveying the settlement for Uniting World. realised “my time here wasn’t finished.”
“During that time I saw not only the poverty within the com- She started Vunilagi Book Club with the idea that “books
munity, but I saw so many children not going to school, being take you places. It’s not just about reading so you can pass

Gain a postgraduate
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Islands Business, April 2021 27