Awareness

a) Community outreach

  • RFHAF engages in providing one hour to three-days awareness session in the community on integrated comprehensive and life skills sexuality education.
  • Topics covered during these sessions range from sexuality, values and values clarification, self-concept, puberty and adolescent, conception, birth, contraception, STIs and HIV and AIDS, communication and relationships, safety network, No-Go-Tell, prejudice reduction, critical thinking, and behaviour change concepts.
  • The community outreach sessions are usually attended by parents, elders and out-of-school youths.
  • Partners in the provision of such outreach are Department of Women (for women in communities), Department of Youths (for out-of-school youths and school drop-outs)
  • Outreach are conducted in the interior of Viti Levu, Vanua Levu and Maritime Islands.

 

b) School Based outreach

  • This is inclusive of all children in schools which RFHAF conducts in-collaboration with the Ministry of Health & Medical Services and the Careers TEST Unit of the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts.
  • Topics covered are Sexuality, Puberty and Adolescents, Me Circle and Safe Space, No-Go-Tell, Traffic Lights, Safety Network, Steps to Relationship, Private and Public Parts, Behaviours and Places, Ok and Not OK Touches.
  • School outreach is implemented at Primary school level from Year 1 – 8 and secondary level from Year 9 – 13 throughout Fiji [as far as the Lau group and Rotuma]
  • RFHAF also conducts similar awareness to preschoolers’ (five year olds)

c) Business houses and workplaces

  • A new initiative that RFHAF began in 2018
  • This is implemented in partnership with the Fiji Cancer Society
  • Sessions covered are within the scope of Women’s and Men’s Sexual Health (STIs, Reproductive Tract Infections, Reproductive Cancers, and Infertility) Sessions are carried out in all offices (Fiji Development Bank, Kontiki Finance,
  • BSP, ANZ, Digicel and Hoteliers) in Fiji and all expenses are met by the business partners
  • The offices are usually on the two main islands (Viti Levu and Vanua Levu)

d) Public Events

  • RFHAF celebrates three important events yearly
  • SRH Week, is a RFHAF initiative in promoting healthy relationships among young people and coincides with Valentine’s Day. The theme for this year’s SRH Week is Healthy Relationships, Everyday is Consent Day. RFHAF implemented EVERYDAY CONSENT CAMPUSES program, whereby it set up booths in campuses where students are able to access information on Healthy Relationship. The week concluded with the Journey of Love Walk on Valentine’s Day, whereby young people were able to access SRH services. February is also Family Health Month in Fiji.
  • Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) is an event RFHAF celebrates annually to address myths and stigma that is associated with sexual gender based violence. RFHAF organizes activities such as What were you wearing exhibit, in reconstructing the survivors outfit when assaulted to address the blame around survivors deserving to be assaulted because of the clothes they wear. Also celebrated on the 25 th of April is Denim Day (everyone who celebrates SAAM with RFHAF comes in Denim) whereby a judge in Italy had informed the court that the 18-year-old girl could not have been raped by her driving instructor because she was wearing denim, hence she would have assisted him in removing her clothes. This year’s theme will be ‘I ASK’
  • 16 Days of Activism begins on the 25 th of November (Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls) and ends on the 10 th of December (Human Rights Day). RFHAF young people would reenact Gender Based Violence, Intimate Partner Violence on the streets of Suva, Lautoka and Labasa to raise awareness on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. It also provides orange balloons (the numbers of orange balloons represent the reported statistics of women and girls in Fiji who may have undergone some kind of violence in that year), orange ribbons, petition on support of the elimination of violence against women and girls to be signed and orange flyers with information on violence against women and girls to business houses and stakeholders. RFHAF also celebrates all other international Days that falls within the 16 Days of Activism and ends with Human Rights Day celebration which RFHAF celebrates in collaboration with it partners namely Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, Medical Services Pacific, to name a few.

 

e) Campaigns

  • RFHAF engages in safe games and safe festival campaigns.
  • Safe Games – this is usually games that young people are involved in such as the Fiji Secondary School Coca-Cola Games. The RFHAF youth peer educators are involved in this campaign in reaching other young people and disseminating information on adolescent sexual and reproductive health. RFHAF peer educators are able to reach about 5,000 young people during the two days of the athletics competition.
  • Safe Festivals – similar to that of the safe games, only this is implemented during festival such as the Vodafone Hibiscus Carnival, Bula Carnival, Sugar Carnival and the Friendly North Carnival. Young people are again engaged in peer education and are able to reach about 15,000 young people during the course of the one- week (the peer educators will work for five days only) long carnival.

f) Media

  • RFHAF utilizes radio and TV in disseminating information on sexual and reproductive health and rights
  • It also disseminates information through its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages for reach amongst young people
  • A youth volunteer is a radio announcer in Lautoka and RFHAF provides information for him which he can announce over the radio during his time on air.

 

g) Mother/Daughter Day

  • RFHAF has a program for young girls from 6 – 9 year olds (I Love Being A Girl) and from 10 – 14 year olds (Future She Deserves)
  • Over the years RFHAF has identified the need of parents’ involvement hence it created the mother-daughter day program.
  • During the mother-daughter day, mothers and daughters will undergo sessions on sexuality, puberty and adolescents, relationship, and communication. During these sessions mother’s will share their experiences with their daughters and daughters will read their letters to their mothers on the challenges they face with regards to sexual health and reproductive health as young girls growing up today. The mother-daughter day has been very successful in that mothers are appreciative of the program since it has opened doors to discussing sensitive issues with their daughters. With our current Future She Deserve program interest has been shown from the girls’ fathers who have been attending some of our mother-daughter day hence plans are in the pipeline to change the day to Parents-Daughter Day.
  • RFHAF is now designing a similar program for boys, called Expect Respect, and hopefully we will be able to implement the program this year (2019) and also have a Father-Son Day.

h) IEC Development

  • RFHAF develops its own IEC materials on Contraceptives, SAAM, Disability User Friendly Services, Basic Counselling Strategy Plus, etc.
  • In the development of its IEC, RFHAF sends the material to Ministry of Health & Medical Services and the IPPF SROP office for checks on the information on the materials before it conducts the pre and post-test to check its relevance amidst the target group.
  • After IEC materials are finalized then RFHAF will send to printers for development and distribute amongst the intended target audience

i) Youth involvement

  • RFHAF has a very strong component of youth involvement and this is seen in all aspect of its work from governance (50% of young people are Board Members), programs (23% of staff are young people) and it has its own Youth Strategy.
  • RFHAF youth volunteers are the backbone of RFHAF campaigns, public events, humanitarian responses and advocacy activities
  • RFHAF currently has 120 youth volunteers, with approximately 48% members in secondary school, 40% in primary school and 12% in tertiary institutions.
  • RFHAF has 60 peer educators and 10 peer counsellors who have undergone basic counselling skills and are able to refer young people to the RFHAF Clinic.

j) Vulnerable Population (LGBTIQ and Sex Workers)

  • RFHAF works very closely with an LGBTIQ organisation (Rainbow Pride Foundation) in raising awareness on sexuality, sexual and reproductive health and rights. It was able to implement five awareness sessions among the LGBTIQ community.
  • IDAHOT celebrations is always done in partnership with Rainbow Pride Foundation
  • There is also a high percentage of LGBTIQ members who are in the sex industry hence our reach amongst sex workers 

RFHAF has ten competent trainers who can provide awareness training to any target population except with vulnerable populations. RFHAF currently has only two staff that
can implement awareness sessions among the vulnerable population.