Fiji Airways Helps Connect Children to Life-Saving Care with Cure Kids
12 August 2026 – Nadi, Fiji: Fiji Airways is helping bridge critical healthcare gaps across Fiji through its partnership with Cure Kids Fiji, enabling doctors, researchers and specialists to reach communities where their expertise is needed most, supporting travel for programme employees, medical specialists and researchers to deliver vital child health programmes, specialist training and research from urban centres to remote maritime communities.
Since the partnership began, Fiji Airways has supported 41 flight sectors, including 30 domestic and 11 international sectors, enabling healthcare professionals to deliver programmes, specialist training and research across Fiji. These initiatives have directly reached 819 people, including 716 pregnant mothers through antenatal health programmes and 103 children through rheumatic heart disease (RHD) screening programmes.
Fiji Airways Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Paul Scurrah, said the partnership reflects the airline’s commitment to supporting communities across Fiji.
“In a country of scattered islands, air travel is a lifeline, not a luxury. Through our partnership with Cure Kids Fiji, we’re using that lifeline to help bring life-saving care closer to the children who need it.”
One example of the partnership’s impact came during a community health screening event at the Accor Hotels Sports Day in Nadi, where Cure Kids Fiji and the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (Western Division) screening team offered free heart screening to families attending.
Thanks to Fiji Airways-supported travel, a paediatric registrar was able to reach Nadi from Labasa Hospital to support the outreach, and 103 children were screened on the day. Several children were identified with early-stage rheumatic heart disease; a stage at which children often show no symptoms and appear completely healthy, allowing families to receive counselling and referral into ongoing care before the disease progressed.
Cure Kids Fiji Country Manager, Dr Jimaima Kailawadoko-Matanaicake, said the event captured the partnership’s impact in practical terms: “Something as simple as providing transport can completely change a child’s future. It shows that when organisations partner with the health sector, they’re not just helping people travel, they’re helping children access life-changing healthcare.”
With Fiji Airways’ support, Cure Kids Fiji is strengthening key national health programmes, including rheumatic heart disease (RHD) prevention and screening, the Fiji Antenatal Study, Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium research, the Fiji Oxygen Program, and climate and respiratory health initiatives.
Travel support has also enabled Cure Kids Fiji programme teams to reach remote locations such as Vanua Balavu, where critical health infrastructure upgrades, including the installation and commissioning of a solar-powered system at Lomaloma Subdivisional Hospital, are helping strengthen healthcare delivery in vulnerable communities.
The partnership has also supported the development of local healthcare capability, including enabling medical officers from Labasa Hospital to travel to Suva for specialised echocardiography training. This has strengthened diagnostic capacity in the Northern Division, allowing children identified through screening programmes to be assessed more quickly and closer to home. In addition six international specialists have travelled to Fiji to share expertise, deliver clinical training and support research initiatives, helping strengthen Fiji’s healthcare workforce and long-term capability.
Looking ahead, the partnership will continue supporting rheumatic heart disease screening, specialist workforce training, Strep A vaccine research, and initiatives focused on strengthening healthcare systems and improving outcomes for children across Fiji. Together, Fiji Airways and Cure Kids Fiji are helping ensure that life-changing healthcare, expertise and support can reach more children and communities across Fiji.