Women’s Fund Fiji (the Fund) is the Pacific’s first national women’s Fund. The Fund is an empathetic and adaptive feminist fund working to influence and mobilise financial and non-financial resources for feminist and women’s rights organisations and movements, so they can progress the human rights of women, girls, and gender non-conforming people in Fiji. The Fund is registered as an independent entity under Fiji’s Charitable Act.

Changing The Oars – Women's Fund Fiji Welcomes Director

We are thrilled to announce the appointment of our first Executive Director. Menka Goundan will be steering the Fund in the next chapter of its journey.

Menka had taken the oars from Michelle Reddy in April 2022 as Acting Executive Director. She brings strong institutional knowledge as she has worked at the Fund since early 2019 as Senior Program Manager, leading the Fund’s grants management, capacity support, and monitoring evaluation, accountability, and learning initiatives.

Leadership Transition- Women’s Fund Fiji farewells Michelle

The Women’s Fund Fiji team bid farewell to outgoing and pioneering Fund Manager, Michelle Reddy in March 2022.

Michelle served as Fund Manager since the Fund’s inception in 2017, leading the establishment of the first national women’s fund in the region. With the support of team members and diverse communities, Michelle facilitated the Fund’s core work of influencing the flow of resources to women’s groups, networks, and organisations in Fiji.

MSP Opens First Pop Up Clinic in Suva

In response to increasing request from community members especially women and girls for counselling, family planning support, clinical support, and legal support services, Medical Services Pacific (MSP) opened its first Pop-Up Clinic in the MHCC complex, Suva in late March this year. The clinic has been catering to Fijians from all around the central division, as far as Namosi, and from civil servants to market vendors.

Offering people an escape from waiting in long queues, improved accessibility in a central location, and early and timely response to emergencies, the Pop-Up Clinic at the MHCC groundfloor is welcomed by many. 
 

FCS Rolls Out Palliative Care Trainings for Community Health Workers and Nurses

The Fiji Cancer Society (FCS) commenced its Community Palliative Care Project (CPCP) trainings with health care workers and zone nurses in March this year. The trainings aim to equip participants with the required knowledge and skills to look after palliative care patients.

Implemented through a Sustainability Grant from Women's Fund Fiji, the  Community Palliative Care Project was introduced to address the lack of support for female palliative cancer patients, aiming to improve the quality of life for palliative patients in terms of optimal pain/suffering management, emotional and general support by providing holistic and integrative care palliative.

WFF holds GESI and Financial Management Workshop with Grantee Partners

For the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown, the Women’s Fund Fiji (the Fund) team conducted in person Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) and Financial Management training with selected grantee partners in Pacific Harbour, Suva from 1 to 6 May 2022.

The two trainings are two key capacities support the Fund provides to its Grantee partners. The Fund team had continued to provide remote support during the period of COVID-19 lockdown which had been a challenge but a learning event for the Fund. 

 Grantee Partners share work experience during COVID-19

Women’s Fund Fiji (the Fund) hosted the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion and Financial Management workshop for its 2020-2021 grant call partners at the Uprising Beach Resort, Pacific Harbor. The workshop was held from 1 to 6 May 2022 which was the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown in April 2021 that the Fund team got to come together with some of its grantee partners in the same room.

This presented an opportune time for the grantee partners to share with each other and with the Fund team their learnings, experiences as well as challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

Crafting Canoes of Change in Fiji

Our Executive Director, Menka Goundan, and Program Officers- Devina Devi and Kuini Rabo talks about Women’s Fund Fiji’s inception and journey in becoming the Pacific’s first national women’s fund, and the work of  the Fund's grantee partners amidst the COVID-19 pandemic (pg. 66-76).

The article was included in the publication titled, "Feminist Philanthrophy: Stories of Resilience", in which Women’s Fund Armenia put together a collection of articles from Women’s Funds from various part of the world sharing “collective feminist struggle, love, and passion for feminist philanthrophy. A type of philanthropy that brings changes in our own lives, as well as the lives of our partners around the world.”

Team Culture Part 1: Building an Empathetic and Nurturing Organisation

How well do you work with others? Do you want to learn how to improve your ways of working?

Welcome to the FIRST of a reflective series of blogs written by different members of the Women’s Fund Fiji (the Fund) on these topics.

Over the next few months, we will be sharing our journey of looking within our team and the way we work with each other. We will explore why it is important to invest time, energy, and other resources towards intentionally building a work culture that is empathetic and nurturing.

When Feminists Dream and turn those Dreams into Action, Great Things Happen!!

Learn more of what drives the Fund's success.

In this blog piece, Women's Fund Fiji’s outgoing and pioneering Fund Manager, Michelle Reddy reflects on her journey in leading the establishment of the first national women’s fund in the Pacific.

Drawing from learnings on how leaders have significant influence and have the power to nurture people in their organisation and ecosystem, Michelle reflects on the values and work practices established at the Fund and what motivated her choice to be a nurturing and feminist leader.

2021 Annual Highlights Report: A year of reaping, repositioning, and thinking about the future

2021 was a challenging year with Fiji experiencing the devastations brought about by tropical cyclones and the second wave of COVID-19. Our grantee partners rightly focused on responses to these. We had 45 active grants with 25 grantee partners-this is the biggest number of grants the Fund has in any one year of its operations.

Released in April 2022, our WWF January-December 2021 Annual Highlights report captures highlights of how our grantee partners have adapted, repositioned, and continued to be there for their communities - making life better for women, girls, and gender nonconforming people, including those with disabilities. The Fund in turn learned so much from our partners and adapted to better support our grantee partners.
It has truly been a year of reaping, repositioning and thinking about the future.2021 had also been a significant year of reaping for the Fund as much of what had been sown through hard work over the years were realised. After five years, we transitioned to an independent entity registered under Fiji's Charitable Trust Act. It has been an exciting and empowering journey from an initiative of the Australian Government’s Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development (Pacific Women) Program to now the Pacific’s first national women’s fund led by the feminist and women’s movement in Fiji. 

Download the report 

Responding to Feminist Movements During COVID-19: Key learnings, reflections, and recommendations from the Asia and Pacific chapter of the Prospera International Network of Women's Funds

This report documents the learnings and experiences of eight women’s funds (including Women’s Fund Fiji) in grant management and resource mobilisation with its myriad of grantee partners to address the impact of COVID-19. The eight women’s funds are from the Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds, Asia, and the Pacific regional chapter. The learnings and experiences captured in this report affirm the key role of women’s funds, which is to mobilise and distribute resources to feminist, and women’s rights movements. Based on a learning circle methodology, this report explores how women’s funds moved quickly and collectively, adapting to a rapidly changing context to ensure support reached those who need it most. The eight women’s funds aim to demonstrate through this report that women’s funds are, and remain strategic partners during, and beyond the COVID-19 response because they facilitate vital resources to diverse groups and communities, particularly those often disadvantaged by mainstream assistance; and women’s funds work is close to the ground, supporting local and sustainable solutions.

Download the report 

Women's Fund Fiji Information Brochure 

As part of its information-sharing component, the Fund developed an updated information brochure containing important information about the Fund and it’s work in mobilising financial and non-financial resources for women’s rights organisations and movements, so they can progress the human rights of women, girls, and gender non-conforming people in Fiji. 

Download Information Brochure