John Gray Recyclers' Seacology Fiji Naikorokoro Project

FIJI, Naikorokoro Village, Ovalau Island - Start Date: November 2002

"Construction of a kindergarten and upgrading a community hall in exchange for the establishment of a no-take marine reserve

Naikorokoro Village is located on the island of Ovalau. Ovalau has played an important role in Fiji's history as it is home of the nation's first capital, Levuka. Naikorokoro is located two miles away from Levuka Town. There are two mataqali (tribes) in Naikorokoro, which has a population of 107 people. Due to its proximity to Levuka, much of the waters near Naikorokoro have been over-fished. In exchange for the village's establishing a no-take marine reserve for ten years in a 17 square mile (10,880 acres) section of their traditional fishing area, Seacology is providing a much-needed kindergarten and upgrading the existing community hall.

UPDATE July 2004 - Construction of the new kindergarten and work on the community hall has been completed. The buildings were officially dedicated during Seacology’s 2004 expedition to Fiji. The expedition shared the dedication with students from the John Gray Recyclers of Grand Cayman, a high school group that helped fund the project. "

The above Seacology article can be found at the following url: http://www.seacology.org/projects/individualprojects/FIJI_naikorokoro2002.htm

Click on picture above to Visit our Website created following our visit to Fiji in July 2004, to attend the Opening Ceremony of the Naikorokoro Kindergarten.

The people of Fiji will be forever remembered by the John Gray Recyclers for their courage and determination to preserve their environment and heritage, without changing the way they have lived for generations. In order to meet this challenge they are forced to accept great hardships.

The courageous people of Fiji need our help and support, as do their beautiful, threatened coral reefs and environment around them. Many of their islands are being bought up by foreign rich property owners and their way of life destroyed to enable the foreigners to become even richer from tourism.

The people of YasawaIRara are bravely trying to preserve their way of life but are facing many difficulties and need our help so badly. They comprise of around 600 villagers with no running water, and very little water in the dry season, no school, and no medical facilities. They have already agreed to preserve two of their islands for the Seacology Foundation and they have built them a beautiful Community Centre where we stayed when we visited them. The people do not even have tools to help them mend anything that goes wrong. They have no transportation, and the only food they have apart from what they grow is the flying fox which desperately needs to be preserved. So you can see that they really need our help! Just a small donation from each of us will help them to live a happy and fulfilled life.

The Seacology Foundation are unable to offer more assistance to these villagers at this time as they have many more islanders around the world to assist.

Click on this link above - Duane Silverstein, the Executive Director of the Seacology Foundation in California is being interviewed by Donovan Watts from the Coral Reef Alliance. Duane explains about the importance of the protection of the Coral Reefs and the Mangroves. You will find our Fiji Coral Reef preservation project mentioned in this Report.

Duane Silverstein, the Director of the Seacology Foundation, is pictured with the John Gray Recyclers at our Commonwealth Youth Services Awards Presentation evening organised by the Cayman Islands' Department of Youth & Sports, at Pedro Castle in February 2002. Jeremy Forbes, our President, is seen handing Duane a cheque for one thousand pounds sterling (our award stipend) towards the protection of 17 sq miles of coral reefs in Naikorokoro, Ovalau, in Fiji. In return the John Gray Recyclers, with the help of the Huff School, in California, and the Seacology Foundation, have raised sufficient for the building of a kindergarten in Naikorokoro.

Click the picture, and you will see Jeremy Forbes and Mrs Whitehead officially opening the kindergarten in Naikorokoro on 7 July 2004.

We would like to thank our sponsors - Air Pacific, Cayman Airways (our national flight carrier), Pastor Al Ebanks, and the Agape Family Worship Centre, the Bank of Butterfield, Cathy Church's Underwater Photo Centre & Gallery, Cayman General Insurance Co Ltd, Cayman Imports Ltd, the Cayman Islands' Department of Environmental Health, , the Cayman Islands' Department of Tourism, the Cayman Islands' Ministry of Education, Human Resources and Culture, the Cayman Rugby Enthusiasts, Crusader International Management (Cayman) Ltd, CUC, , Dresdner Bank, Island Paving (1985) Ltd, Kirks Office Supplies, KPMG, the Pirates Week Committee, the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman Central, Sounds & Things, and the Queensgate Bank & Trust Co.