Statement from the Acting Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services 04/09/20
04/09/2020Prime Minister Hon. Voreqe Bainimarama’s Address at the Opening of the Virtual Island Summit
08/09/2020Published On: 07/09/2020
To my Fellow Fijians,
Ni sa Bula Vinaka, Namaste, Ni Hao, Noa’ia ‘e Mauri and a very Happy Constitution Day to you all!
As you all know, we had to think a bit differently about our celebration this year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Because Fiji is a COVID-19 contained country and our children can safely attend school, we gave our students the chance to take part in a virtual Constitution Day celebration — one that called on their creativity to answer the following prompt:
“Given the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic, how can all of us work together to uphold every Fijian’s right to health, as enshrined in our Fijian Constitution?”
I want to thank all the students who helped us answer that prompt through essays, videos, poems and short stories. All together, we saw hundreds of submissions. As hard as it was, we have narrowed down all of those incredible contributions to five national winners.
It is now my privilege to announce those students today: Our first winner is Raijeli Sakaria, a Year Eight (8) student from the Bhawani Dayal Memorial Primary School, who gave us all some great tips on how to stay COVID-19-safe ––by including the installation of the careFIJI digital contact tracing mobile application in your mobile phones.
The Year 11 students of Labasa College are among our winners as well –– with a sketch that shows how all of us can work together to keep Fiji COVID-19 contained.
We are also awarding a duo from the Rakiraki Methodist Mission School –– Year Eight students Jone Raibevu and Aminiasi Dalituicama who contributed a short and sweet spoken word performance.
And with a powerful essay, which we have since recorded for the nation to hear, Year 10 student Oswell Morell wrote his winning piece on how and why our constitutional right to health matters for every Fijian.
Last, but certainly not least, Year One student NES Natania Damudamu of the Gospel School of the Deaf has been selected as our fifth national winner for her video showing us, via sign language, how we can all help realise every Fijian’s constitutional right to health by properly washing our hands.
We are grateful to the parents and teachers around the country who helped us make this year’s Constitution Day a success.
I hope you had fun with your videos, and all learned something along the way. Congratulations to our winners, I look forward to hosting you all at the State House.
Happy Constitution Day!
May Almighty God Bless Our Beloved Nation. Thank you!
