The Australian government has announced an additional $10 million assistance to re-build all nine schools in the Northern Division that were damaged by tropical cyclones in 2020 and 2021.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong announced this in a joint news conference with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on Wednesday during the launch of Fiji Rugby Women’s 2023 Campaign.
“This is an additional funding on top of an existing program which will enable us to rebuild all nine schools which were destroyed or damaged due to the tropical cyclones,” she said.
“We want to also ensure that we will re-build these schools to a higher standard that can sustain the impacts of a category five cyclone.”
Ms Wong highlighted through this assistance, both Australia and Fiji have renewed their commitment to build stronger Vuvale Partnership which signified the strong bonds of friendship and collaboration between the two nations.
“We have a long-standing relationship which covers many aspects including sports, education, climate, defence and security.”
She said the Australian government was committed to building on their shared priorities.
“We want our engagement not just to this problem (tropical cyclones), but to also improve the capacity of Fijian people living in communities.”
