Celebrating the Collaboration of VSHC and FCDP

End of the Year Event - Empowering Communities for Wellness.

The Viseisei Sai Health Centre celebrated its end of the year event on Monday 21st November 2016 at the Ratu Iloilovatu House in Viseisei. The celebration was held to mark the collaboration of Fiji Community Development Program (FCDP) and the Viseisei Sai Health Centre (VSHC) from 2013-2016. The event was held in the presence of Her Excellency the Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, Ms. Margaret Twomey, National NCD Advisor Dr. Isimeli Tukana from the Ministry of Health, Tui Vuda Ratu Kitione Tavaiqia, FNU Vice Chancellor Mr. Iqbal Janif, FCDP Representatives, Representatives from the District Commissioner’s Office, Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women and Poverty Alleviation and Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Her Excellency, the Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, Ms Margaret Twomey during her address as Chief guest. She was impressed with the activities and their outcome and the way Australian Aid funds had been utilized in the communities of Vuda to empower communities to wellness.

Ministry of Health’s National adviser on Wellness, Dr. Isimeli Tukana, in his opening remarks mentioned that his journey to Viseisei was like the wise men from the East following the bright star shining in the West. This has led him to witness the birth of Wellness program in the Vuda zone.


Ratu Josaia Tuivou Tavaiqia, from Viseisei Village, welcoming the Chief Guest, invited dignitaries, Participants and Schools.

The achievements of the Project over the 3 year period were displayed in stations that the guests walked through. The project staff briefly highlighted the achievements. Visual aids were used for clarity.

The achievements through the three year period of FCDP project displayed by the VSHC team.


Viseisei Health Zone display by the Zone Nurse.

The event had presentations from the school children from the Vuda cluster, as VSHC has been closely working with these schools. All the five schools were invited to participate in the celebrations. They participated with oratory, drama and posters competitions on the theme “My Health is My Wealth”. The children also showcased their backyard gardens and were awarded the “Wellness Badge”.

PEN- Package of Essential Non Communicable Disease Interventions for Primary Health Care in Low Resource setting was also showcased. PEN is a WHO tool designed to monitor the risk of patients having a major cardiovascular event in the following 10 years. Similarly the team at VSHC keeps a track of PEN risk profile of their high-risk patients whenever they attend clinics. These results were shown to the people present. The score is assigned every 6 months to track change in their risks and impact of management, which includes lifestyle modification and medications as required.

The table below shows changes in the risk prediction score over a period of treatment. The table shows that 78% of patients either improved or did not worsen their score. The remaining 22% had become worse.

Risk of NCD Patients at VSHC of having a major Cardiovascular event in the next 10 years using Risk Prediction Chart (WHO 2010)

Key:          No Change in Risk (55.6%)                      Worse Risk (20%)

                Reduced Risk (22%)                                  Lost to Follow up (27.3%) 

Health Promotion Officer Alvin Kumar during PEN presentation.

The 12 active CHWs for Vuda Zone displayed their work with pictures and captions describing some of the activities they were involved in throughout the project.  As advocates, they role-played their understanding on how they deal with health promotion in the communities, managing difficult cases in the community, supporting families and assisting in referrals for medical follow up. The four scenarios involved all CHWs taking part and demonstrating their ability to approach and educate individuals, their family and engaging community members. Their individual profiles were prepared and displayed for evidence.  

Mr. Rusiate Tora, NHQ Commissioner, Fiji Scouts Association and Health Educator at VSHC.

A way to promote wellness and to combat NCD is to target the Scouts in the Vuda Cluster by assisting them with seeds to do backyard gardening. Sixty scouts were assisted by their parents and guardians to plant the seeds to promote self-reliance and courage to work for their subsistence supply of vegetables.
Oratory, Drama, Poster competition and Backyard Garden vegetables were part of the children’s activities that were showcased at Ratu Iloilovatu House.
More than 180 people turned out to witness the celebrations and were very pleased with the achievements of the Viseisei Sai Health Centre Team.