Fiji National University’s Natabua campus in Lautoka has prioritised health and wellness by incorporating a programme for staff and students.
Campus head Perry Gabriel said it is important to introduce new habits that reduce health factors and they gather staff every Thursday for an hour to participate in a wellness programme.
This is in line with the FNU’s recent attainment of maintaining its ranking in the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking as well as improving its overall scores.
FNU’s combined three best scores were Sustainable Development Goal 3 – Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 13 – Climate Action and SDG 15 – Life on Land.
Gabriel said the wellness programme is a time for all staff and students to participate in physical/environmental activities like campus clean-up campaign and vegetable gardening to help in their individual journey of improving their health.
“It is important for us to introduce new habits that would improve the health of the staff and students, and to also feel better mentally,” he said.
The students are also engaged in physical activities such as rugby, soccer, netball and volleyball and minor indoor games like darts and table tennis, once they complete classes for the day.
The wellness sessions are held from 3pm to 4pm.
Natabua Campus nurse Saras Wati said they are looking forward to the next project which will be the Annual Health and Wellness Screening.
This she said is scheduled to be conducted at FNU’s four campuses in the West including Namaka, Natabua, Naceva and Ba.
