St Vincent College devastated following Cyclone Winston
JUNE UPDATE: Students at St Vincent’s College are back in their classrooms. Four classrooms have been repaired and two have been rebuilt after a collective effort between various donors and partners. Our support to rebuild St Vincent’s is ongoing.
Our partners in Fiji need our support to rebuild the severely-damaged Saint Vincent College in Natovi, in the province of Tailevu, on Fiji’s largest island Viti Levu, following the devastating category-five cyclone Winston, which hit the small South Pacific island nation at its peak on February 20.
Since the cyclone, classes have been limited due to the extent of damage.
Despite the challenges, however, teachers and students are getting on with the job of teaching and learning as best they can with classes being held in rooms with no walls, or wherever there is a patch of grass.
Saint Vincent College was established by the Marist Fathers and Marist Sisters more than 115 years ago and is now administered by the diocese.
It is located about a two-hour drive away from the capital of Suva and caters for 220 students, including 60 boarders (35 boys and 25 girls). Students are aged between six and fourteen years old.
Many of these students’ families live on outer islands or in the interior highlands, and most struggle to pay school fees, which are less than $100 a year.
These families come to Saint Vincent, often having been turned away by other schools in the area because of their inability to pay school and boarding fees. Saint Vincent’s never turns away any child in need of education.
Please donate now to support our partners in the Pacific as they rebuild their communities.