15-Day Build Project in Fiji
Join a Building project in Fiji and experience the unique culture, customs and way of life in the South Pacific islands. Make lifelong friendships and shared memories on a challenging team project, whilst gaining global experience, developing unique skills and making a real contribution.
Whether you are looking to boost your employability or embark on a self-developing adventure, join a team and work alongside rural Fijian communities on local initiatives which are achieving groundbreaking results.
- Meaningful 15-day project in the Fiji Islands.
- In Partnership with the Fijian Government.
- Work in a traditional Fijian village
- Stay in nearby hotel accommodation
- Build a village health clinic
- Learn a new culture
- Develop skills, meet like-minded people and make a contribution.
- Project includes; flights, food, accommodation, 24/7 in-country support, weekend adventures, domestic travel, charity donation
- Experience; Gain hands-on work placement experience.
- Contribution; Make an impact on sustainable development goals.
- Challenge; Expand your comfort zone and throw yourself into South Pacific life.
- Learn; Learn a new culture by experiencing the ‘Kaiviti’ lifestyle.
- Skills; Develop ‘soft skills’ such as teamwork, communication & leadership.
- Memories; Create memories and friendships that will last a lifetime.
Team Challenge + Cultural Immersion + Contribution = Huge Personal Growth
Say goodbye to everyday life and arrive in the tropical South Seas. You will land at Nadi Airport where you will meet your team leader and begin preparing for your project ahead.
Every project starts with a 3-day briefing at a resort. This is the time for you to get to know your teammates, acclimatise, prepare for your project and meet our Fijian partners.
Each day you will travel to a traditional village and work on the construction of a health clinic in the mornings and collaborate with Fijian youth in the Pacific Skills ‘Culture Course’ in the afternoons.
‘Vakavanua‘ translates to ‘in the way of the land.’ After village orientation, some of your greatest experiences will be the simple activities of experiencing Fijian life.
Enjoy trips to local sites of cultural interest or relevance to your project and exciting weekend adventures to local rock pools or beaches.
We finish the project by enjoying your final 1 night of de-brief. This is time to rest, relax and reflect as a group as we discuss the project goals and celebrate project achievements.
Learn What Makes Us So Unique…
All our focus is on Fiji.
Authentic Experiences
Teams of up to 25 students.
Targeted sustainable development.
Facilitating Fijian Government objectives
Our projects offer you the opportunity to experience a traditional village, whilst staying in a nearby hotel accommodation. You will travel each day with your team to contribute to a community development initiative that supports the achievement of the Fiji National Development Plan and UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Leave a physical legacy by building a community health centre. Each building has been requested by the Fijian Ministry of Health and provides each village with amenities for their community health worker to conduct medical assessments, stock and administer medications. All this is completed alongside community youth members who will also be unskilled and trained in carpentry.
50% of the project’s aims and objectives, you will be on the receiving end of an initiative in partnership with the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs (Arts, Heritage and Culture). You will learn about Fiji’s culture from those who know it best, the youth in your village, as they deliver an interactive cultural education course that boosts their own skills and cultural competency. Appreciating and celebrate traditional Fijian lifestyle specific to each village.
In Partnership with the Fijian Ministry of Health
Our building development projects make a substantial difference to rural villages. We predominately create nursing stations and heath centres to expand the provision of medical care and increase the capacity of the local nurses and health teams. They are deeply valued and appreciated by local people who must request projects and be involved in each stage of the assessment, building and ongoing maintenance of the project.
Who should join a TP Building Project?
Our building project is great for gaining international experience and expand their global perspectives. You don’t need any prior building experience to join the project, this project is open to all students. You will, however, need resilience and a desire to implement our project aims.
What’s Involved with a Building Project?
The day-to-day build will be supervised by our qualified Fijian team, who provide lots of support and training but ultimately it is up to the commitment of you and the local community to work together to complete the project in our set time-frame. It’s hugely rewarding to see the project take shape and utilise the building on project with your youth group, after an a huge opening ceremony.
Think Pacific has been delivering building projects for the Fijian Government Since 2009.
In the past decade, our volunteer teams have complete 70+ building projects. Each project adheres to our highest standards of due diligence, community collaboration, youth training & responsible volunteering.
All building projects are led by the Fijian Ministry of Health, who highlight locations and work in collaboration with rural communities and health workers to plan and evaluate each project. This ensures the project is genuinely needed and can be assessed and monitored at community and national level. Each build contributes to the Fiji National Development Plan and the ‘Towards a Healthy Fiji Islands’ initiative. These Government policies work towards the outcome of creating ‘healthy communities living in healthy environments’.
Alongside our partners at the Fijian Ministry and Fiji National Employment Centre, each building project facilitates training and skills development for Fijian students and unemployed youths. The project is a mechanism to teach basic carpentry skills to unemployed youth and fund spaces for Fijian students to gain work based experience. The cross-cultural nature of our project introduces Fijians to global understanding and develops their ‘soft skills’ and leadership. Finally, we highlight unemployed youth for further training and apprenticeships within our Foundation and other local organisatons.
We aim to be the epitome of purposeful, responsible and empowering international projects and experiential learning programmes. Central to this is the depth of our association with local communities, government departments and organisations within Fiji, which is unique and unrivalled.
Every project is planned in collaboration and at the request of rural communities and directed and monitored by Fijian Ministries to ensure our projects have real purpose and long term sustainability. We are respected for working within the framework of the government, adding benefit to long term strategies and the advancement of education, access and opportunity for youths and children living in rural areas.
We work alongside many leading international universities and hold many partnerships to support the formal delivery of global mobility. Through our structured projects, we guide hundreds of students annually who develop leadership, transferable skills and expand their cultural understanding, whilst contributing to the aims and initiatives of our Fijian partners.
The Culture Course is an experiential learning programme as standard with any rural Think Pacific project. You will be immersed in rural Fijian culture throughout your project but this course intentionally goes deeper! Through immersion, the course aims to educate project participants about indigenous Fijian culture through structured sessions delivered by members of the community youth group themselves and Think Pacific leaders.
For You:
- Learn in-depth about the lifestyle, culture and traditional skills that make up rural Fiji and importantly understand how they all relate and why.
- Develop inter-cultural competency and the ability to successfully communicate within a foreign cultural environment.
- Adaptability to changes in your own and foreign cultures.
- Tolerance: while working in teams, learn to listen more attentively, to respect each other’s opinion, team-work and team-spirit.
- Personal Skills: personability and set-up of sessions allows you to grow in confidence and communication.
- Appreciation of diversity: appreciation of the opinions and values of others, sensitivity to cultural diversity, and becoming more aware of your own culture.
- Broader Perspective: Reconsider the cultural framework you have been brought up in and acquire skills that will enable you to observe and analyse encounters with diversity and to extend these beyond the framework of your culture.
- Critical thinking.
For Community Youth Members
- Pride in their culture and upbringing and the practicing of traditional skills and knowledge.
- To encourage personal growth in the form of a boost in confidence, communication skills, team working, leadership, time management and presentation skills.
- Financial support for those involved and the youth group of the community.
- Any outstanding individuals can be highlighted for scholarship / employment opportunities
- Appreciation of diversity: appreciation of the opinions and values of others, sensitivity to cultural diversity, and becoming more aware of their culture.
- Broader Perspective: Reconsider the cultural framework they have been brought up in and to acquire skills that will enable them to observe and analyse encounters with diversity and to extend these beyond the framework of their culture.
- Critical thinking.
Central to any rural Think Pacific experience, the course has an agreed and consistent structure that is delivered across all projects. This ‘syllabus’ allows room for local variation of skills and knowledge but also remains consistent across villages. This syllabus therefore is made up of ‘themes’ rather than specific universal sessions.
Four themes explored:
- Identity and Custom
- Perspective
- Art
- Food
These categories are not mutually exclusive as almost all of them will relate to at least another one of those categories. (Eg. Meke would come under the category ‘art’ but can easily also relate to identity and language, even food.)
What they can be used for, however, is structuring each week consistently with other projects whilst allowing for local variations on each category. If x2 sessions from all categories are hit and delivered, that will make up the successful completion of the course.
x5 key youth members are highlighted by the community prior to your project beginning. These will be consistent members who would be leading delivery. Community youth will lead the sessions based on what they feel comfortable delivering and facilitating within the community and Think Pacific leaders are there to support. They can have free creative license to teach about any aspect of culture they feel passionate about (there may be a unique tradition that they wish to include), and there are a variety of interactive actives that come under the four themes of culture we’re exploring. Every village is unique and therefore every project has its own flavour.
Our aim is to provide a fully inclusive programme from start to finish. Each programme is inclusive of all accommodation, transport and logistical aspects and activities within Fiji and all meals.
The programme is also guided 24/7 by our in-country team, with the full and comprehensive backup of our Fiji HQ and extensive management team.
Think Pacific has over a decade of experience working with local suppliers and only uses resorts and providers, which are approved by Directors, meet our high standards and have received great previous university feedback
Full inclusions list:
- All Accommodation for 14 nights/15 days
- All in-country transportation by private mini bus using approved suppliers
- All meals as per itinerary
- 2x Think Pacific leaders living alongside the group 24/7.
- 24 hour emergency support from Fiji HQ and UK office
- Site visits, workshops and activities as per itinerary
- Airport welcome by Think Pacific Expedition leaders
- Cultural orientation, project briefing and workshops by highly experienced local staff
- Guest speakers from Think Pacific’s influential local partner network including government representatives, academics or local business and charity leaders.
- Guided weekend activities
- Organised cultural activities such as including kava ceremonies, lovo feasts, mat weaving, meke dancing.
- Outstanding pastoral support and daily health and wellness check ins.
- Daily briefing and de-brief
- In-country branch managers, project managers and UK team providing planning, risk assessment and 24-hour backup support.
- Comprehensive online portal & personal volunteer project planning resources
- Programme debrief at beach resort
The following costs are not inclusive of the programme fee. However, Think Pacific provides comprehensive and personalised support to assist:
- Flights (falls within 12,000 Km / £1300 budget for Turing, which should be achievable)
- Travel insurance
- UK transfers to and from home or college to Airport
- Additional spending money (snacks, drinks, souvenirs or activities)
- Vaccinations: These can be free from the NHS for most students but can also cost approximately £35. The recommended vaccinations include Typhoid and Hepatitis A.
Throughout the itinerary students will stay in shared rooms within popular, clean and approved beach resorts and hotels (twin-share or max 6 per room). Resorts and accommodations have been used by Think Pacific groups successfully since 2009.
Think Pacific provides comprehensive support to universities as required. Universities are provided with a dedicated and experienced director to oversee the entire program from start to return with specific areas of responsibility designated from the outset. Our services with the programme fee include
- Full Promotion of programme including webinars or presentations and content
- Management of all applications and creation of custom application pages
- Careful communication with all enquiries
- Pre-departure support and live zoom sessions
- Visa paperwork support
- Pre-departure Portal – A comprehensive portal for all travel essentials and latest advice for flights, insurance and kit list, vaccinations and more.
- Pre-Departure Hub – Our own pre-departure group for live enquiries, chat and student networking, available to download as an App.
- Live seminars on cultural awareness, cross-cultural and Fiji preparation
- Global Skills – Our online portal with courses in Fijian Culture, Global Awareness, Sustainability, Leadership and Global Career Skills.
