National leaders visited Dilkusha Home in Nausori.
A century-old legacy of compassion rooted in the Girmit era was brought into focus today as national leaders visited Dilkusha Home in Nausori during the 147th Girmit Commemoration.
Dilkusha Home, established in 1904 by the Indian Division of the Methodist Church, traces its origins directly to the hardships of the Girmit period, when indentured labourers and their families faced poverty, uncertainty and separation in colonial Fiji.
The visit was led by Minister for Public Enterprises, Multi-Ethnic Affairs, Culture, Heritage and Arts Charan Jeath Singh, alongside Permanent Secretary Dr Vinesh Kumar, who both acknowledged the Home’s enduring role in providing shelter and care for vulnerable children for more than 120 years.
Minister Singh highlighted the institution’s powerful beginnings, recalling how two abandoned infants discovered in a basket at the Indian Christian Mission in 1904 inspired missionaries to establish a safe refuge an act that eventually became Dilkusha Home.
He also paid tribute to early missionary figures, including Pastor John Williams, Hannah Dudley, Reverend John Burton and Mary Austen, whose work with the Girmitiya community helped lay the foundations of structured care and support during one of Fiji’s most difficult historical periods.
Today, Dilkusha Home continues to serve children from diverse backgrounds, evolving over time while remaining anchored to its founding mission of care, dignity and protection.
Singh says the story of Dilkusha is inseparable from the broader Girmit experience, reflecting how compassion and service emerged even in times of hardship and shaped Fiji’s national identity.
As Fiji marks the 147th Girmit Commemoration, he said the focus should not only be on suffering and struggle, but also on resilience, unity and the values that helped build modern Fiji.
