^{1 July 2019}

With more than 700 households having consented to take part in RISE Fiji, our community fieldworkers have wasted no time getting back out into the field to begin conducting baseline surveys on health and wellbeing.

Starting to work closely with residents and collect baseline data is a crucial point in the program in Fiji, so the team decided to take a soft launch approach, visiting one of the settlements for an initial round of surveys, before re-grouping later to share experiences of how the rest of the surveys can be conducted as effectively as possible.

‘This opportunity to get together and reflect on our first surveys was very important for us’, said RISE Fiji Coordinator Isoa Vakarewa. ‘One of the things the team shared was that asking residents to be open and honest about their wellbeing needs to be handled sensitively as it can bring to light psycho-social challenges people may be facing in their daily lives.

'RISE has a limited scope but we should offer referral support if requested. Therefore, our fantastic volunteers Lo and Solo have put together helpline cards with information about local support services that the fieldworkers can hand out as they visit households who may benefit from such services’.

Fieldworkers will be visiting households in pairs over the next six weeks to conduct the baseline survey across all 12 settlements. Community Engagement Councils - representative liaising between their communities and RISE - have helped get the word out to residents that they will receive quarterly visits from RISE to track their health and wellbeing over time.