As part of our on-going programme we provide basic items for schools and kindergartens, such as relevant reading and reference material, stationery, games and equipment. We visit urban and rural schools, both on the main islands and on many of the smaller islands of Fiji. We also regularly provide resources for children’s homes and  hospitals. In some cases we provide more specialist equipment, such as musical instruments, several Braille machines, Braille reading material and appropriate tactile resources for the Fiji School for the Blind, shower chairs for use by the children in the Frank Hilton Special School and Hostel and basic medical equipment (for example, clinical thermometers) for children's wards in hospitals.

Each year we transport approximately 3 tons of goods. These are sent in advance of our own visit and on our arrival we collect them from the sea/air ports and then distribute them from our Suva base. We would like to acknowledge the free transport of these goods from the UK given by Qantas Airlines, Air Pacific, Confreight Shipping UK and Swire Shipping UK.

In addition to our on-going commitment to supply basic resources, we also carry out a number of larger projects. For example we have funded the building and equipping of the Sunny Smiles kindergarten at Bainivalu Primary School, Nakasi, and the construction of a second Sunny Smiles kindergarten at Naduri on Vanua Levu has now been completed. We equipped the science laboratory   at Nakasi High School, and produced and equipped quiet activity areas in St Christopher’s Children’s Home and the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva.

We have also had a library constructed at Vatuwaqa School near Suva and a girls’ dormitory built at Navitilevu School (a project jointly funded by ‘Children of Fiji’ and the school).

Our most ambitious project to date is to fund the construction of a vehicular bridge across the river at Qelemumu Primary School on the island of Vanua Levu. Previously, children had to wade through a very dangerous river to get to school. In the rainy season the river became too high to cross and the children sometimes missed weeks of school. Several children had drowned. The children now have a safe crossing and can even get to secondary school in Labasa by truck.

Only about a third of schools in Fiji have adequate fresh water and sanitation facilities.

We have provided 15 schools with fresh water storage tanks and at Sigatoka Valley School we financed the provision of a bore hole to obtain water. An even more ambitious project to provide fresh water at Navolau Primary School is now completed. This  school is in a particularly dry area and water shortages meant that it often had to close. The project involved piping water from a source in the mountains about 9.5 kilometres away to storage facilities above the school. This project was funded in a three way split between the Fiji Government, Children of Fiji and the village itself.

2006 saw the completion of our second bridge. This footbridge is at Kaleli near Lautoka on the main island. It links two settlements across a creek and means that 500 children now have safe access to school instead of having to struggle through a dangerous flooded creek.

We have provided sanitation facilities for Ahmadiyya Secondary School in a very rural area on the island of Vanua Levu. We have also installed electricity from solar power at this school for the staff and students to use for lighting and for running some computers.

A second major fresh water and sanitation project was completed at Rakiraki Primary School and kindergarten in 2008 (we attended the official opening of this in October of that year). This is making a significant difference to the health of the children at this school, many of whom were suffering from a variety of complaints, including trachoma, which could lead to blindness. We organised a medical inspection and the administration of antibiotics to fight these infections.

In 2008  we funded our third ‘Sunny Smiles’ kindergarten, this time on the small island of Ono, off Kadavu. In September 2009 we attended the official opening of this kindergarten.

In 2009 we provided science equipment for Ram Lakhan Memorial School (thanks to the generosity of Dorchester Middle School in Dorset, UK). We provided sports equipment for schools, musical instruments for a Hindi Youth Group, 200 brightly coloured customised T- shirts for a Sunday School Group in one of the poorer areas and we provided more specialist resources for the Fiji School for the Blind.

In October 2009 we started projects to improve the dining facilities at Beqa School, a study area at Nausori High School, improvement of the dormitory facilities at Waibunabuna School and the provision of basic medical equipment for baby monitoring at the Bouma Health Centre on Taveuni. In 2010 we attended the official openings of both the sanitation project at Waibunabuna and the Nausori High School study area. We also personally took medical equipment to Bouma Nursing Station (including Doppler machines, baby weighing machines, sphygmomanometers, stethoscopes, and basic items such as bandages, lint, medical wipes/gels. We also took back-packs for the nurse and staff to be able to take equipment into the villages)

In 2010 we have initiated our next kindergarten project. It is on the island of Kadavu and we hope to attend the official opening of this in October 2010

We have responded to natural disasters (Fiji regularly suffers from cyclones) and sent out emergency aid on several occasions.

In 2005 we were actually on hand to aid victims of flash flooding that destroyed many settlements and rendered many families homeless. We sent out emergency resources for victims of Hurricane Cliff and Cyclone Gene. In the major flooding of January 2009 we were again 'on hand' with emergency resources and to visit evacuation centres. In 2010 we experienced first hand the effects of Category 4 Tropical Cyclone Tomas. We have launched an emergency appeal to help the children affected by this disaster.

One of the most exciting aspects of our charity work was being able to organise for a young girl to come over to the UK to undergo reconstructive surgery. The 14 year old girl suffered from a rare genetic condition known as ‘cherubism’, in which the bone in the face began to disintegrate at the age of about 5 years and  replaced by tissue, leading to huge facial swellings. Surgeons in a private London hospital agreed to carry out the operations free of charge.  Shayna came over with her mother in January 2008 and spent 7 months here, undergoing several stages of major surgical treatment including bone grafts. The surgery was very successful and the physical changes have been quite significant. Perhaps even more exciting, however, is the self assurance that she now possesses. She has returned to Fiji with the confidence to face the future with optimism. She now attends school regularly and is thoroughly enjoying it (she rarely attended school before, as she was reluctant to leave her home because of the fear of being bullied or teased). In 2010 Shayna returned to the UK for the last part of her surgery and to have teeth fitted.

As we have already indicated, Children of Fiji is run by just the two of us. We now make two annual visits to Fiji (September/October and February/March). We both took early retirement from teaching in the UK to run the charity full time, apart from  marking A level examinations in January and June to earn the money for our own transport to Fiji and accommodation whilst there – we never use charity funds for this.