More than 56 thousand families have now received assistance from the Homes CARE initiative.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Welfare – Dr. Josefa Koroivueta says their field teams are now in the process of second visits to affected areas in the Western Division.

Today and tomorrow, teams will be based in Lautoka to assess Homes CARE applications.

“This is the most recent under the Homes CARE program, we certainly had assisted 56 492 families from Labasa, Sigatoka, Nadi, Lautoka, Ba, Tavua and Ra.”

The PS noted that so far this assistance has cost more than $63 million dollars.

In Labasa to date, the Homes CARE recipients have totalled 594.

In Sigatoka, that number rises to 5 220 Fijians, in Nadi, 18 333 persons have successfully applied for the Homes CARE assistance, the largest grouping so far.

The second largest group comes from Ba with 11 956 recipients.

In Lautoka, that number is 7 103, Tavua, 5 876 and in Ra, a total of 7 410 Fijians have received Homes Care assistance.

Under the program, the M-PAISA cards will expire on the 31st of July.

Dr. Koroivueta notes the teams hope to conclude their consultations by end of the June.