Girls Work In Fijian Home

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31907, 7 February 1969, Page 2

Girls Work In Fijian Home

Four Canterbury girls recently spent their holidays doing voluntary work in Fiji. For about a month, they relieved staff at St Christopher’s Anglican Home, near Suva, which is run by four nuns from the Community of the Sacred Heart. The girls were two kindergarten teachers, Miss Jenny Shields, of Christchurch, and Miss Anne Gillies, of Geraldine, and t-vo students from Christchurch Teachers’ College, Miss Judy Wright and Miss Nancy Hamilton. “It was a most rewarding experience, knowing that we were doing something to alleviate the problems of some of the children in Fiji, even though we could not help them ail,” said Miss Shields, who is aged 19. A member of the Christchurch Diocesan Youth Council, she was sponsored to Fiji by the St Chad’s youth group

at Linwood and by her own parish, St Mark’s, Opawa. The home, which has accommodation available for 20 children, was officially opened in April last year. It is planned to add a win.’, to include room for unmarried mothers, this year. There were 17 children, mainly Indians, when Miss Shields was there. Only one was a real orphan; the rest were welfare cases, whose parents were unable to look after them.

“Our day would start at 4.30 or 5 a m., when we would bath and feed the babies,” said Miss Shields. “There were always nappies and other things to be washed before breakfast, which was at 8.15. “We would take turns at helping the cook at the various meal times, otherwise we supervised and cared for the children. At 4 p.m. there was bathing before tea. The older children went to bed about 7.30 p.m.” While the girls were working at the home, the nuns were able to do book work and other tasks which they had difficulty fitting in at other times. High Praise

Miss Shields had high praise for the work done by religious people in Fiji in the field of education and tn trving to find jobs for the school-leavers.

As a kindergarten teacher, she was disappointed to find that, in Suva, there seemed to be a complete disregard of nre-school children.

‘They were just considered the responsibility of the mothers and this wade things difficult when a mother had. say, nine children. The people 'believed that education started at primary school whereas New Zealand recognises pre-school education as being very important," said Miss Shields.