Ana Mari Karikari is leading by example in her community of 32 households at Lololo Pine Station, about 45 minutes drive inland from Lautoka City.
As a community health worker — a position she has held for the past five years — Ana has seen the need to introduce healthier programs to respond to the health threats in her community.
“After hearing of ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) Fiji’s work being discussed by other community health workers in the Western Division, I started approaching the team to give us an opportunity to have the program implemented in our area,” the 42-year-old said.
Since last year, ADRA Fiji had considered her request and started with the implementation of the Fiji Circular Economy for Healthy Lifestyle (FCHEL) project in the area which has a population of 154.
Funded by ADRA Australia, the project aims to promote a healthy environment and lifestyle to be able to respond to the risks of non-communicable diseases and other health threats through its Live More Abundantly (LMA) program.
With an aim to guide people living in rural areas on healthy lifestyles, one of its key targets is to identify volunteers, facilitators and health professionals and conduct facilitators training on LMA. Ana is one of the LMA facilitators in the Western Division.
She said they had seen a lot of improvement since the implementation of the project as members of the community now shifted their focus towards healthy living.
Apart from engaging themselves in more physical activities such as home gardening, they are also conscious about their diet and have limited the consumption of unhealthy food such as processed food products, and this was largely due to the continuous training that was conducted.
“As a community health worker, I’ve noticed the impact, particularly in the number of sick cases reported. It is not like before where children are brought in sick or when adults come in asking for Panadol and this is attributed to the change in lifestyle in their homes.
“We have seen people losing weight and they have become active because we are what we eat.”
Ana said nearly every household now had their own home garden because they had benefited immensely from it. “Our children are now taking healthy lunches to school instead of the processed food we buy from the shop.
“Personally, I have seen the changes in my lifestyle. I wake up early nowadays to prepare my children and I feel lighter compared with before, I used to force myself to wake up because of the heavy food we used to eat previously.”
After the completion of the seven-week program, Ana said many had opted to continue because they had seen the various benefits the program had brought about.
Members of the community, according to Ana, now have improved skills and knowledge in nutrition, dietary diversification, nutrition in emergencies, climate-smart home gardening and traditional food preservation techniques.
- Losalini Bolatagici is the communications officer for ADRA Fiji and writes in her capacity as the AHP communications technical support officer under the AHP Centralized Communication (Shared Services).
