Bringing a sense of home to those who need it most

Wonderful Neighbor allows our employees to give back to the communities where they live, work, and play. For FIJI Water employees, this meant addressing one of the most basic foundations of all: the home.

The Daulomani (pronounced do-lo-mahnee) Safe Home is a non-profit organization that provides temporary shelter for the homeless and underprivileged in Lautoka, Fiji. From single mothers to children and the elderly, all walks of life, races, and members of the LGBTQI community are welcome.

While the safe home provides shelter and food, some basic necessities are hard to come by or are nonexistent.

“They live off the land. They don’t have running water. They don’t have electricity,” said Annjelyn Shalvina, manager of logistics and depot at FIJI Water, who spearheaded the project.

In addition to contributing food, clothes, and other one-time donations, Annjelyn and her team wanted to give the home’s residents an opportunity to grow. By upgrading the safe home’s kitchen and providing chickens and chick feed, they ensured that residents would be able to prepare food like never before.

But they still needed fuel.

The team researched and discovered a company able to implement a new biogas tank system to create methane for cooking and organic fertilizer. By utilizing all manner of waste – leaves, vegetable peelings, and animal waste, to name a few – bacteria within the biogas tank breaks it down to liquid and methane gas. The gas is then piped into the new kitchen and stove to cook food. The liquid becomes organic compost and is then bottled, labeled, and sold in local markets as plant fertilizer. All of the profits go to the Daulomani Safe Home.

By leveraging Wonderful Giving, The Wonderful Company’s charitable donation program, the FIJI Water team also held a donation drive for items like clothes, toys, books, and bags. By encouraging other FIJI Water teams to give to the Daulomani Safe Home, they ensured the home’s residents were able to replenish many of these essential items.

All told, the project took eight months to plan and execute, requiring dozens of team members’ time and efforts – once again showing the power of collective community outreach.