Scholarships for access to Better Climate Education in the Pacific.
The EU Ambassador to Fiji and the Pacific, H.E Sujiro Seam and The USP VCP, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, congratulated Phd scholarship recipient ,Jyoti Mala (Fiji) and Masters scholarship beneficiaries, Barnabas Koroa (Solomon Islands), Rahul Prasad (Fiji), Roslyn Nand (Fiji) and Yvette Tari (Vanuatu) at a media event at the Delegation.
The quest for higher education was made easier for Jyoti, Barnabas, Rahul, Roslyn, and Yvette, when on 20 February 2020, they were all awarded a full climate change scholarships by the Intra-ACP GCCA+ Programme through its PACRES (Pacific Adaptation Climate Change and Resilience) project.
The scholarship awardees are from Fiji, Solomon Islands & Vanuatu. While four students will pursue their Masters of Science in Climate Change, one candidate will pursue her PhD at the University of the South Pacific (USP).
The Pacific which is one of the most impacted regions in the world by climate change, is in dire need for capacity building in this area.
For Roslyn, a former college teacher from Fiji: “As a teacher, I felt I needed to know more in order to deliver better”. With regard to her scholarship she believes “this would help me create a generation who would well understand the causes and effects of this issue, this would help them be responsible for their actions.”
Roslyn’s research would focus on generating gender equity in small-scale fisheries to improve food security resilience in Fiji.
“Fiji being an island nation and fish being one of the major food sources, it made me focus on the fisheries sector,” she said.
It is estimated that women carry out almost 50% of fishing activities that are crucial to Pacific livelihoods, however their contribution towards food security and family well-being is rarely recognized.
For Roslyn, “Since women are known to be the food handlers and providers, it is important that we empower them in improving food security, especially in preventing post-harvest losses to promote resilience from the impacts of climate change in the fisheries sector.
“That is what I will place my focus on.”
