Project Background
The Beqa Island Dispensary Build Project took place at Soliyaga Village, a remote community in the Sawau District in Fiji. The project’s purpose was to improve healthcare access for remote populations by constructing a fully functional rural medical dispensary to support mobile health teams.
The facility now serves 276 beneficiaries, including Soliyaga Village and nearby settlements. The build aligns with Fiji’s National Development Plan priorities and Think Pacific’s mission of sustainable development, youth empowerment, and community-led resilience.
Project Overview
Rural communities in Fiji face significant barriers to healthcare access. Soliyaga Village, with around 25 households, is only reachable by boat or narrow footpaths. Travel to mainland health services is time-consuming, costly, and often dependent on weather.
Before this project, the community lacked a suitable facility for medical outreach. Mobile health teams relied on makeshift locations, limiting the quality and frequency of services. The absence of a proper dispensary also created health inequities for vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women, and the elderly.
This project focused on constructing a durable, culturally appropriate, community-owned dispensary built to rural development standards.
Key activities included:
- Securing an approved build site through village consultations
- Transporting materials by land and sea
- Completing structural works, including profiling, foundations, framing, and sheeting
- Training local youths in practical carpentry and construction skills
- Collaborating with eight international volunteers under guidance from the site supervisor
- Ensuring the structure meets requirements for mobile medical teams, water drainage, and climate resilience
- Despite challenges such as weather delays and remote logistics, the project progressed smoothly thanks to strong community engagement and Think Pacific leadership.
The dispensary was completed by November 2025 and formally opened after final inspections and a celebration featuring a traditional sevusevu welcome, blessing of the new facility, village leaders’ speeches, and cultural performances.
Project Outcomes
276 villagers now benefit directly from improved healthcare access, including:
- Soliyaga Village households
- Smaller nearby settlements connected via walking tracks
- Patients supported by mobile outreach teams who now have a reliable clinical environment
The project had additional impact, with indirect beneficiaries such as:
- Village youths who gained construction skills and employment opportunities
- Local hardware suppliers, with 95% of materials sourced locally
- The wider Sawau cultural region, strengthened through community-led development initiatives
By having a fully functional rural health dispensary, the community is now experiencing positive outcomes such as:
- Drastically reduced travel burden for essential health services
- Reliable base for mobile health outreach
- Improved water storage and drainage for long-term sustainability
How does this project fit into a larger strategy?
Through the construction of a durable, culturally appropriate, and community-owned healthcare facility, the project has created long-term access to essential medical services for hundreds of villagers in Soliyaga and its surrounding settlements. This achievement reflects the collaboration between Think Pacific, the Ministry of Health and
Medical Services, the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs, village leaders, community youths, and international volunteers—each contributing their skills, knowledge, and commitment to a shared vision. The new facility demonstrates the power of combining traditional wisdom with modern construction practices, youth empowerment, and volunteer support to produce meaningful outcomes.
As Think Pacific continues its mission across Fiji, this project serves as a model of how sustainable infrastructure, community engagement, and strong partnerships can work together to uplift rural communities and contribute to national development goals.
Project Background
Rural communities in Fiji are often disconnected from key medical facilities, putting them at a disadvantage. This may be due to lack of transport options or infrastructure allowing access to healthcare, as well as transportation costs. For example, from a village in the highlands it may take three hours in expensive transport to access the simplest of medical treatment.
In addition, medical equipment cannot be delivered to any community unless there is an officially registered, purpose-built, and secure facility where medical equipment and medicine may be stored under lock and key, in a clean and dry environment. Basic medical services also cannot take place without this provision.
Project Overview
Think Pacific’s Community Build projects aim to provide vital infrastructure and development for rural communities in the Fiji Islands. These aims are guided under our Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services in Fiji and the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs.
The projects will provide wooden dispensaries with iron roofing to selected rural communities in Fiji, following the successful model of other Think Pacific ‘Build Projects.’ The goal is to enhance healthcare facilities and accessibility to medical services in remote areas of Fiji, contributing to the overall well-being of the local communities.
The project being funded through the Footprints Network will create one community health dispensary, which will take between 10 days to two weeks to implement.
The Ministry of Health and Medical Services in Fiji will highlight communities for this project based on priority and on how the new Health Dispensary may also serve the surrounding communities. Once the communities are selected, we will approach our partners, the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs, and obtain permission to conduct work in the highlighted communities, approaching the chief of each village for his express invitation.
The design of the Community Health Dispensary, designed by our Construction Manager, follows the guidelines stipulated by Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services.
Community Youth Training Initiative
The project will be overseen by our local On-Site Supervisor, a trained carpenter or tradesman who passes on their knowledge, skills, and experience to the community members involved so that they may build more sustainably and more effectively long-term within their community.
This means that the completed build itself is a product of the training initiative at a local level. This is a fundamental goal of the project and an additional benefit to the physical impact of the build itself.
Project Outcomes
The core outcome is to provide rural communities in Fiji with increased access to basic medical supplies, to upskill and train local youth group members in carpentry skills, and to ultimately provide space and provisions for the Community Health Worker to undertake their work.
The impact of the Community Health Dispensary is:
a) A safe and secure location to store basic medications
b) A location/setting for the Ministry of Health to train and allocate community health workers
c) A location for a community health worker to conduct local workshops, training, diagnosis, and prescription of basic medicines
d) A youth training initiative for a small group of community members to learn sustainable carpentry and tradesmen skills and techniques from Think Pacific’s local building manager
Community Involvement
This project is directed and requested by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services in Fiji, a government branch which inextricably aligns its goals with the Fiji National Development Plan & UN SDG’s.
Government partners:
- Fijian Ministry of Health & Medical Services
- Ministry of iTaukei Affairs
- Ministry of Youth & Sports
- Local provincial council of area highlighted for project
Community partners:
- Village and community members of the area chosen for the project
- Local youth involved in the building and carpentry training program
- Homestay families who accommodate Think Pacific staff
- The community health worker who has been highlighted to use the clinic as their place of work
- Provincial health workers who will provide support to the community health worker
How does this project fit into a larger strategy?
Think Pacific has been working in partnership with local government, under MoU agreements, for over a decade to deliver projects in rural communities that support the implementation of the Fiji National Development plan.
How was it this funded?
Thanks to hundreds of tiny donations from these online businesses and their customers.
- World Nomads USA
- World Nomads Canada
- Travel Insurance Direct AU
- Travel Insurance Direct NZ
- World Nomads Australia
- World Nomads NZ
- World Nomads UK
- World Nomads Europe
- World Nomads Ireland
Think Pacific
Investing in Fiji’s Future
Think Pacific is a registered charity in Fiji dedicated to empowering rural communities through sustainable development initiatives.
Founded on the principles of collaboration and cultural exchange, Think Pacific works in close partnership with the Fijian Government, local NGOs, and community leaders to support the implementation of the Fiji National Development Plan. A long-term plan to empower Fiji and address critical social, economic, and environmental challenges.
The charity's mission is to create long-lasting, positive change by supporting grassroots projects that enhance education, promote health and foster economic opportunities in remote and underserved areas of Fiji.