It was an early Christmas gift for the 73-year-old Mecuisela Naisogo and 65-year-old Raijeli Rokodreu from Nukulau Village, Ra as they received their civil marriage certificate and legally received the right to be called husband and wife.

This marriage was made possible through the Rights, Empowerment and Cohesion project that has been providing services to the people of Ra for the past two weeks.

Naisogo says they felt so emotional and are thankful to the Fijian Government because they finally know deep down that they are now married.

Rokodreu says she had no time at all to seek government assistance and faced so many hardships in terms of earning money because of the geographical location. 

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She says the hardships they faced caused their marriage to be delayed.

Their eldest son is 42 years old and has children of his own.

The Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation works with other Government agencies in an integrated approach to reach out to communities in the rural, urban and in the maritime islands to provide a one stop shop of information and support related to government services. 

The mobile REACH program assists the government to bring its’ services to all Fijians.

The REACH team has completed their tour of the district of Burewai and will be based in the district of Nalawa this week.