Navula

Comments

• 
  Ruba Vasuikoro (guest)

  Hidden City

  10 years ago | reply | hide comment
• 
  Ruba Vasuikoro (guest)

  Hidden City...

  10 years ago | reply | hide comment
• 
  Ruba Vasuikoro (guest)

  Emotions were high when Sigatoka River Safari officially welcomed its 15 th village - Navula Village situated along the Sigatoka River in Fiji, to its award winning tour. As part of the Sigatoka River Safari, tourists travel up the Sigatoka River in custom made jet boats and visit a different village everyday to see and experi ence ‘real’ Fijian life. With 14 villages current ly inv olved, the addition of Navula Village was a result of the village seeing the positive impact Sigatoka Riv er Safar i was hav ing on the other vill ages. “Na vula village had heard all the positive news regarding tourism development in the valley and all the great consequences it was having for the villages in volv ed. They too wanted to be part of i t and Si gatoka River Safari was happy to welcome them to the tour “Explains Jay Whyte, Founder and CEO, Sigatoka River Safari. The village chief was overwhelmed with emotion when t he first tourists recently arrived at his village. “The Chief was very emotional. It was the first time he ever had tourists in his village so it was a dream come true for him. Our passengers just couldn’t believe how happy the village people were to have them there. It was truly amazi ng!” Continues Ja y. Navula Village, which is home to 150 Fijians, will be visited by tourists one day a week for 6 months and i ts annu al income will increase significantly through donations from tourists on the tour and from Sigatoka River Safari who pay a percentage of all fare s directly to the village visited on that day. The extra funds will be used to support the various village projects. Ot her villages who involved in the tour have used their extra funds to put footpaths throughout their villages, fix and renovate their community hall, improvements to their district schools, complete their village churches and many other culturally important projects . The village will also benefit further from being in volved in the Sigatoka River Safari as founder, Jay Whyte, embarks on a project every 6 months to help the 15 villages he works with. Pas t projects have included supplying these remote villages new Easy-Tel phones, installing fixed water filters in every village so they can access cl ean drinking water any time of the day, se ven days a week, giving the villages the company’s old life jackets to use for when they cross the river to redu ce the i n cidents of drowning and recently Jay installed a Bore Hole (drinking water) in the local Naqalimare Dis trict S chool after the Government threatened to close the school down unless one was installed. “I deci ded early on when I pursued my dreams and s tarted the business in 2006 that I was going to do something regularly to benefit the 14 villages we work with in the h ills of Navosa. It gives me great pleasure to be able to help the vi llag es and give them something they really need and normally it’s things we take for granted like drinking water” Said Jay .

  10 years ago | reply | hide comment