Brendan and Nancy Small are two people who reside on the Central Coast in the small town of Jilliby, but two people who want to make a big impact to schools and kids in Fiji.
The SpotGo Directors have family ties back to Fiji and recently went over to the tropical island to provide schools with much needed Mariners sporting gear as well as a money donation from SpotGo to put toward their football teams to purchase other match supplies. When visiting these schools, they were awestruck with what they saw and immediately wanted to think of ways they can help to make these kids’ lives easier.
The First School they visited was Andrew’s Primary School to donate the Mariners kits and $500 to help their football program. “The Sun Fiji” was also in attendance and spread the good work through their publication which is distributed in the local village. The next school they visited was Mulomulo Secondary School where they were able to assist with more equipment for their sports program.
On arriving to Mololo Island Resort situated on Mololo Island, Nancy and Brendan set off to visit the Brigid Yaro Village Kindergarten which was founded by their Aunty Brigid and Uncle Tony Whitton.
“We knew that the school was short of supplies, so we donated much needed educational books, Texta’s, colouring pencils and more and seeing the relief that those items gave the teacher was inspiring,” Brendan and Nancy said.
Whilst they were there, they soon realised that this kindergarten had no running water nor electricity. The simple things we all take for granted.
“The school is located up the top of a hill and if the children want a drink of water, they have to run about 400m down to the village and back again,” Brendan proclaimed. It was in seeing conditions like these that the SpotGo directors saw the need for change.
“The school also doesn’t have any electricity so if the teacher wants to print out any activities for the kids, she needs to jump in a boat to be taken to the other village, to the library there and print out the pages required before coming back. All up, a three hour round trip.”
The SpotGo team were also there to donate some Mariners equipment to the children and after seeing the state of the building which was in need of paint, running water, electricity and basic school equipment, they wanted to enact change. Due to these major pieces of missing infrastructure, half of the kindergarten’s students don’t attend school and spend their days running around the village. While there, Brendan and Nancy handed out Pink Mariners hats and before long the village was turning pink. “There were children coming up to us in the village asking for hats and we had to encourage them to go to school. By the end of the day, it was a sea of pink hats in the village, and it was a great sight to see.”
“The water tank was blown away five years ago in a hurricane, and they haven’t had the funding to replace it,” Brendan Small said.
“Even adding a shade over their play equipment is a small price but one that we want to do to keep the children out of the sun during their breaks,” Nancy Small added.
Since that day Brendan and Nancy have been aiming to raise much needed funds for this kindergarten. SpotGo’s goal is to raise enough funds to help the Brigid Yaro Village Kindergarten get a few of the basic essentials to make learning more efficient and more enjoyable for the kids of the village and to give these children encouragement to get an education.
Their goal is to raise $20,000 which has been carefully measured to include enough to transform the kindergarten with solar panels and battery units for electricity, lights, fans and power points for the classroom, a water tank, guttering, water pump, hand basins and taps plus new paint for the internal and external of the school. They would also like to obtain some play equipment and shade plus other basic needs for the teacher such as a computer and printer.
“We’re heading back early to mid-August to see these works and how they are coming along. Hopefully we will have raised enough money to complete the majority of the works by the August visit.”
If you would like to show your support for the Brigid Yaro Village Kindergarten then you can do so by clicking here.
“Any donation small or large would be greatly appreciated and will help dramatically,” says Mr Small.
