Education
Naqaqa Giving Foundation supports education for children and families in remote Fijian villages. Its programs include the Naqaqa Mommy and Me School, offering free classes, meals, and parenting guidance to disadvantaged students and mothers; support for a special needs school serving children with intellectual and physical disabilities; assistance to local schools; scholarships for promising students; and the Joe de Becker Music Academy. Details on each program follow below.
In 2009, we established the Naqaqa Mommy and Me School. Newly-renovated facilities with classrooms and a playground deliver instruction, art supplies, parenting and health teachings, and daily meals for disadvantaged students and their mothers. Everything is provided without cost to the families at the school which is overseen by Mrs. de Becker and a staff of four.
NGF School
NGF supports the local special needs school in Yaroi, near Savusavu, Fiji. The school works with students with intellectual and physical disabilities, who otherwise might be left isolated in their village. Teachers help students accept their various conditions and work to show how students can make an influence in their local communities. Some children go on to careers they never thought possible – one became a famous rugby player! NGF provides volunteers of all varieties, a wide range of exercise equipment and books, and musical instruments available nowhere else on the island. We funded the Music Therapist for one year, who trained other teachers to continue to balance students’ lives through music.
Special Needs Education
NGF has built libraries in local schools, donated books to these and other libraries. NGF provide teachers with materials from computers to textbooks to pencils. We found a classroom was too hot to study in, so we lowered the windows to improve circulation. We have also installed fans in hot classrooms. We fund teachers, teacher’s assistants and school meals – hundreds of meals a year! We created a computer program at a local high school, providing high speed internet access to an area that had hardly heard of Google or Huffington Post. Our partners in the United States donated all the hardware, and we provided the local computer teacher. We bring volunteers to local schools, some are experts and some just have a big heart.
Local School Support
NGF has provided hundreds of years of scholarships in both primary and secondary education. We have also provided scholarships to universities in Marine Studies, Engineering, Nursing, Banking, Cookery, and, Tourism. We have funded adult courses in Massage, Culinary Arts and enabled less successful students to return to school and re-sit exams.
Scholarships
The Joe de Becker Music Academy began as an abandoned building that was just a roof with incomplete walls. Inspired by the music in the hearts of the students – and by the commitment and love of Headmaster John Tanu, the Academy is now a center for creativity. The builder, Tula Ram put his creativity and heart into the construction and I put my creativity and heart into design. Our first engineer, Tabore put his creativity and heart into learning new recording technologies. Karen and Jone at Naqaqa Giving Foundation put their hearts into obtaining everything that’s used at the Academy, and Ryan, a computer specialist 5000 miles away, put his heart into locating, ordering, and preparing the technology we use.
Koli put his heart into singing and writing the music for our first recording, Full Speed No Brakes, and I put my heart into those lyrics. Harper Simon put his heart into producing the song and doing a guitar solo. Famous singers and composers from all around the world heard our first songs and put their hearts into encouraging us to continue. Beautiful singer Julia Fordham put us in contact with her nephew, Max, a record producer and engineer, and he traveled 10,000 miles from England to set up the best equipment and teach us new skills. The men who built the first building long ago (some of whom are no longer living), who didn’t even know that someday beautiful music would fill it up, they put their hearts and time and labor into lifting the heavy stones for the original walls. The people who hold the key so that the equipment can be safe put their hearts into keeping the key.
My point is that many people you may never meet or see gave their hearts so that this Academy and recording studio will remain a place where creators are encouraged to create, and able to create.
Though it’s possible the Music Academy might generate some money someday, its primary purpose is to fully fund students interested in expressing themselves through music, performance, and lyrics. If money is generated, most will go to the creative people who opened the gates of their talent and performed and created the music that people wanted to pay for. A percentage will go to continued funding of the Academy, to other charitable uses, and to St. Bedes College.
—Gavin de Becker, founder of Naqaqa Giving Foundation
Joe de Becker Music Academy
