Impact Stories

Financial education supports Garanga community to bring back life into its school canteen

March 22, 2019

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Motivated to do something about the high cost of banking, a group of tertiary teachers and students of the Anglican Church of Melanesia’s Garanga Rural Training Centre (RTC) got together to start a savings club. Their inspiration for the savings club was born out of their learnings from an Australian Government funded – Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) financial education (FinEd) curriculum recently introduced at the school.

Realities from the ground; Designing financial services around the ‘Wantok’ culture in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

January 9, 2019

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Up until 2017, only 10% of the population in the Highlands were using formal financial services. Westpac believes that understanding people, their culture, values, and the way things work for communities and linking those insights to the design of financial services can greatly improve the uptake and usage of those services. The ‘Choice Wantok’ savings account that Misa uses is a re-engineered bank account from Westpac to test new financial services that are tailored to the needs of lower income Highlanders.

Insurance helps dairy farmers in time of need

September 28, 2018

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Two days after their mother's passing, brothers Dharmendra and Jasvir visited the FCDCL office in Nausori to seek a microfinance loan to assist their family with the funeral expenses. It was here that they discovered that, while they were not eligible for a loan for funerals, their mother was covered under a recently launched insurance scheme for dairy farmers. Just two months prior to her death, Lusia had signed forms to be part of the microinsurance scheme launched by FCDCL in March 2018, in partnership with FijiCare Insurance Limited and supported by the United Nation’s Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme.

Mobile micro insurance reaching underserved Papua New Guineans

August 15, 2018

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By Erica Lee When Cindy Varvarum’s husband became ill last year, his frequent and expensive hospital visits drained most of the retired couple’s life savings. “My late husband, who used to be a heavy equipment fitter in Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea, had suddenly fallen ill, diagnosed with a rare cardiac disease. As...

Sigatoka Special School excels in Financial Education Innovation Projects

July 9, 2018

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Last year, the Sigatoka Special School was awarded one of six inaugural awards for Financial Education Innovation. The school was a standout applicant with the judging panel describing it as both inspiring and a leader in Financial Education (FinEd) in Fiji. Since 2013, every Fijian child in mainstream education schools engages with FinEd...