Volunteering in Fiji

Cheuk Chung, Psychology

This summer, I’ve participated in the Think Pacific Expedition to Fiji for a month to dwell and serve in a village named Nasau. The village is located in a remote area, surrounded by mountains and cliffs. Although it is a small village consisted of around 50 housing units, it could accommodate up to two hundred Fijians originated from different tribes and dialects. It’s been a great adventure to experience village life and serve the children who were lagging but thirsting for knowledge.

The expedition aims at providing academic support to the Fijian students who were lagging and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Every morning, we would visit the primary school and have one to one tutorial with students who did not perform well in class. To our surprise, the students could understand complex content, yet their basic knowledge was not consolidated. Therefore, we introduced multiple ways of understanding the basics via interactive activities. For example, some volunteers taught summation and subtraction by drawing a rabbit jumping along the number line. Although we expected to make a greater impact on the children, our influence on them was far greater than we could imagine. At the end of the expedition, we were told that the children had spoken English more frequently and gained more confidence in themselves. As for the afternoon time, we would have competitions of different themes to deliver positive messages. For example, the children were asked to rehearse and perform a drama about animal welfare in the second week. After the competition, we would have sports sections with them, introducing new sports such as hockey, Zumba and even Tae Kwon Do. The expedition was never easy, yet the challenges have grown me in different aspects.

The first challenge was the fundraising before the start of the project. The project fee, covering the donations to the Fijian school as well as the stay in the resorts, was £1100. Despite the UCL bursary, I still need to raise another £600 for my trip. It was my first time organizing fundraising events and I decided to set up a fundraiser on social media to sell origami as well as bakeries. At first, I thought my idea was not creative enough to fundraise money for my trip. Surprisingly, my friends and family members were interested in my fundraising campaign, so they provided me with a lot of financial support, motivating me to do more for the Fijian students.

The second challenge was adapting to village life. Before we enter the village, the Think Pacific had introduced the Fijian customs and practised them with us so that we would be prepared for the Fijian village life. Nonetheless, sometimes things may still go beyond our expectations when it comes to the real ones. For example, we were told that the traditional ceremony- sevu sevu would be conducted on occasions such as welcoming and farewell. However, as we stay in the village, the ceremony was conducted almost every night and most of us started to dislike the taste of Kava, which resembles Chinese medicine. Also, we were told that Fiji should be cool and dry in July but due to climate change, the weather was quite hot and humid, making most of us fell sick as we lack long sleeve clothes. Thanks to our caring expedition leaders and the loving villagers, slight changes were made to cater to our needs, allowing us to adapt their culture faster and learn to enjoy village life.

These extraordinary experiences and challenges have not only grown me into a better person but also consolidating the knowledge I’ve learnt in my psychology course. In my first year, I’ve learnt about memory skills and different learning styles. I found these techniques very useful for my studies while the Fijian children lack the skills to remember the basic knowledge. Therefore, I taught them these techniques, which also provided me with a great chance to review the things I’ve learnt last year. Seeing my students gaining deeper understandings of the basics and confidence in themselves, I realized that I could make quite a big impact on other’s lives although it may be hard to change the adverse learning environment in Fiji.

Lastly, I would strongly advise you to participate in this meaningful project, I bet you’ll never regret going to Fiji and make an impact on other’s lives. Before you go, have your mindset prepared for village life and you shall enjoy this once in a lifetime adventure.