Page 44 - Fiji Traveller 7

FIJI BOOK DRIVE SHARES BOXES

OF LOVE ACROSS THE NATION

By Kite Pareti discussions on how best to improve literacy in Fiji," she added.
Luth recalls: “The previous head teacher of Levuka Primary
Fiona Luth started Fiji Book Drive, a non-profit organisation School said to me, ‘Fiona, we really need books on the human
based in Melbourne, Australia, as she wanted to "impact as body’. So, I wrote that in my notebook. I said, ‘Well, you just have
many people as possible". Twelve years later, Fiji Book Drive has to wait one year’. And then to the volunteers that were packing in
donated nearly 300,000 books to 194 schools and kindergartens the warehouse, I said, ‘Give me books on the human body. We
across Fiji. need to give it to this primary school.’ So, we design the impact.
The former English teacher had been grieving the loss of her That means tailoring it to the needs of the people.
parents, who became the reason for starting something new. “If we give them more than a thousand books, they can't
"There's a thing called post-traumatic growth. Trauma makes manage it. We have to give them what they can manage.
us all suffer, but a part of my mind might have known that by Otherwise, the books aren't utilised properly. So, we try to hit the
helping other people, we actually help ourselves. I've always sweet spot every time,” she emphasised.
wanted to do something like this [Fiji Book Drive]. I've always One of Fiji Book Drive’s key missions is to go to the most
been drawn to social justice issues," she said. remote areas because “it's our strong driving belief that children,
Most schools in Kadavu, Taveuni, Naitasiri, Koro, and Cicia no matter the geography or how remote they are, absolutely,
have benefitted, Luth said, and Fiji Book Drive is planning to help should have access to quality reading materials,” said Luth.
more schools in Nadroga and Vanua Levu soon. This saw the team travel by foot and horse last year to deliver
"We're not just a book delivery service. We send a curated books to Nasauvere Primary School in Naitasiri. “This school,
library collection to primary schools, high schools and Nasauvere, you have to cross the Wainimala river 26 times to
kindergartens in Fiji. And we back that up with literacy boosting get there. So, you either go by foot or by horse. For myself,

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