Kevin Nyango
TechInPacific – Loving Islands, a sustainable development organization and Tasty Island Treats Fiji, a local food and beverage startup are collaborating to boost sustainable Fijian youth startups. The initiative comes from the will to support the Fujian youth startups in agribusiness as well as manufactures.
The initiative will also be followed by the opening of a new operation office at 11 Bureta Street in Tamavua. The opening will be launched within the next few weeks. The new retail outlet in Suva will have authentic high-quality island homewares, independent clothing labels, and jewelry. Even more, the outlet will also have a co-working office as well as a commercial kitchen to promote local and healthy food startups.
The Founding Director of Loving Islands, Litia Kirwin said, “We are very excited to bring this space to life as it will provide much-needed support to young entrepreneurs as well as a new social destination for Suva locals and tourists to engage in”
Meanwhile, the owner of Tasty Island Treats Fiji, Nakita Bingham remarked that the cooperation with Loving Islands will consist of a social enterprise, training center, startup incubator, café, organic garden, and retail store. She explained, “It will also see environmental training and education providing ranging from an after-school programme for children to sustainable urban farming workshops for the general public.”
The project moreover will also run sustainable educational programs that include a six-week of urban organic agroecology short course. The sessions of the programs including the Pacific Organic Standards, soil health, soil ecology and composting (nutrient analysis and organic fertilizers, seed saving and pest and disease management, farm business administration and record keeping, as well as market access development).
The course will charge a full cost of $90.00 as well as drop-in classes with a cost of $20.00 per each class. At the end of the program, there will be an exam for assessment. However, the program currently has already fully booked.
Besides urban organic agroecology short course, the program also has an event for children called Green Island Kids Club. It is a six-week program for ages 5 – 11 years old. The program started off on October 16 and is held every Tuesdays and Thursdays.
On Tuesdays, there will be organic urban gardening while on Thursdays will be a kid’s creative design class. On the event, children will learn about sustainability and recycling. Additionally, they are also expected to be creative with recycling materials used in the class. The full cost of the program—which consists of 12 classes—is $200.
Even though the short course program is fully booked, the kid’s club program is still available for booking. If you are interested in registering your kids on the program, please do not hesitate to visit 11 Bureta Street to learn about organic gardening, environment, as well as creative designs.
