Primary School’s - Education

Longer term volunteers may have the opportunity to work alongside, and with, the local Primary Schools in a variety of projects, with children aged 6 to 14 years old. Education is key, and volunteers who are able to spend time in the classroom and educate the children on healthy living and the risks of NCD’s will play a huge part in assisting Fiji at a grass-roots level. As well as education, the volunteers can devise and teach physical Education lessons to increase the physical activities children partake in Primary Schools.

Volunteers have been working closely with local Primary and High Schools and begin with conducting health checks on the teachers as well as devising questionnaires to identify the dietary and exercise patterns of the teachers. From there, the volunteers are able to produce educational materials for the teachers and conduct workshops and training sessions on basic nutrition and healthy living. By educating the teachers themselves this places them at an advantage to not only tackle their own health issues but to be in a position to educate, influence and support their students with adopting a healthier lifestyle. Volunteers can work on a step by step programme for the students and teachers, tackling aspects such as unhealthy school lunches, lack of exercise and lack of nutritional knowledge.

Please note: Any volunteer who has an interest in working in the Primary Schools must have a Criminal Record Check from their home country prior to their arrival in Fiji. This will enable us to follow the correct procedures and register the volunteer the Fiji Teacher’s Registration Board (FTRB).

The duration of the project is as follows:

You can choose to volunteer in this Project from two weeks onwards however we suggest all volunteers are based on the project for a minimum of 3 weeks to allow them to complete at least one 20 day programme with the community. However, volunteers who stay longer than three weeks are able to see a greater results and collect and analyze more data.

Projects Abroad volunteer measuring the waist and hip ratio of a local man – this will determine his risk of developing NCD’s.