For 12-year-old Teenisha Nita and younger sister Kamshin Lata support from the Bayly Welfare Fund has been a blessing. The siblings were at the Bayly's Lautoka office yesterday to collect their books, uniforms and stationery. They said they would not be able to go to school if they had not received help from the organisation.

Their mother, who works for a wholesale dealer, does not have a fixed wage. After paying the weekly rent for $16.50 the sisters and their mother does not have enough to take care of their other needs. Nita, who is in class eight, said the help was a big relief and after collecting their school items they would be able to prepare for the new term.

"We have received help from the Trust for three years - books, stationery and monthly food ration. I will study hard because my mother is struggling to make ends meet " said Nita.

Most of these students come from displaced cane farming families or their parents are either farm labourers or casual workers who are already on welfare. The Fund is already helping 465 students this year and is appealing to companies and members of the public for donations, old textbooks, uniforms and any school gear to help the less fortunate.

Fund member Sarojni Michael said at least ten new students turned up at the fund office daily to ask for assistance. She said 115 students were already on the roll and she had spare for only 50 more students.

In Labasa, Vijay Kumar said at least 50 new students had queued outside his office on Monday morning and a few more had written to him from the rural areas of Vanua Levu. He said the Fund could not accept new applications and had to turn away students. The Labasa office helps 150 students.

In Suva, Michael Chandra said 200 on the roll were given priority and his office was always inundated with applications from students living in Nausori and Navua. The Fund supplies monthly food rations to 690 families and caters for an average of 30 extra applications on its temporary list.

In the beginning...

by Doctor George Hemming
THE FIJI TIMES- 28TH NOVEMBER 1997

It would have been on an unknown date in 1953, say 44 years ago. I was in partnership with Dr Bill Paley in Suva.

On this morning J P Bayly came to see me as a patient and after the problem was disposed of we were talking. JP (everybody referred to him as JP) opened up a subject very close to my heart, namely the need in Suva for a clinic charging only nominal fees, and dealing with medicine of course, but also with the social needs of a large number of people who needed food much more than they needed medical care.

He had something of the same idea as I had but we were a long way apart as to how we should carry the idea. Over some months we had several meetings and tried to reach agreement. We both had somewhat fixed ideas. Some people might say that we were too fixed in our ideas but it would be kinder to say that by nature we were both determined.

Suffice to say that after many hours of negotiations we reached enough measure of agreement to go ahead with some plans.

I agreed that I would run the clinic for seven years (In fact I continued to run it for twenty eight years). He, for his part, would build and equip the Clinic in Rodwell Road. The fees were two shillings a consultation but nobody would be denied treatment so we saw quite a lot of people for free.

I would be responsible for the social work which would be carried out by a voluntary body of people from the Fellowship of the Anglican Church. This was a bit hard for JP to accept but he became very proud of the social work eventually and visited the work on Tuesday mornings.

We supplied food parcels, necessary medicines, legal advice when required, housing and all sorts of essentials required for human life.

JP was a man who took the long view and it paid off.

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