By Lusiana Tuimaisala, Fiji Sun – 14 January 2021

It is ev­ery­one’s re­spon­si­bil­ity to stand in the fight against sui­cide and raise aware­ness on men­tal health.

As part of their so­cial cor­po­rate re­spon­si­bil­ity, Star Prin­tery Pte Lim­ited has printed the Life­line num­bers on ev­ery Ed­u­care ex­er­cise book pro­duced by them for stu­dents to mem­o­rise and pass the word around.

Com­pany direc­tor, Vikesh Chauhan, said the in­creas­ing num­ber of drug abuse, sui­cide, and do­mes­tic vi­o­lence is dis­turb­ing, and ev­ery­one has a part to play to stop and elim­i­nate this so­cial is­sue. He said chil­dren were their fo­cus as they need ex­er­cise books for school.

In Septem­ber last year, Star Prin­tery signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing ( MOU) with the De­part­ment of Sub­stance Abuse Ad­vi­sory Coun­cil ( SAAC) un­der the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion. Fol­low­ing the sign­ing, as a part­ner, the com­pany in­vested $ 2.5mil­lion on print­ing equip­ment from In­dia and up- skilled their staff on how to op­er­ate the ma­chine.

“The ex­er­cise books also al­low the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion an av­enue to cre­ate aware­ness for the chil­dren,” Mr Chauhan said.

“Many times, chil­dren are left be­hind, th­ese books will help them reach out for help,” he said. “The mes­sage in the Ed­u­care ex­er­cise books is loud and clear, and ev­ery book has a dif­fer­ent story. The Ed­u­care range of books are based on the foun­da­tion of hu­man val­ues and has an in­spir­ing and mo­ti­va­tional story based on moral val­ues on ev­ery ex­er­cise book. “The books were al­ready in the mar­ket for the last five years, but we haven’t been ac­tive in terms of pro­mot­ing it,” Mr Chauhan said. “As the largest man­u­fac­turer of ex­er­cise books in the Fi­jian mar­ket, we have the tools to meet the demand”

As part of their so­cial cor­po­rate re­spon­si­bil­ity, Star Prin­tery Pte Lim­ited has printed the Life­line num­bers on ev­ery Ed­u­care ex­er­cise book pro­duced by them for stu­dents to mem­o­rise and pass the word around.

The com­pany has printed more than 100,000 Ed­u­care ex­er­cise books which are now on sale at many re­tail stores, su­per­mar­kets and shops.

Ev­ery cover of the Ed­u­care ex­er­cise book has the Life­line num­ber – 1543, this ser­vice is avail­able 24/7.

COVID-19

Due to the global COVID-19, Mr Chauhan said although the sales had been slow it was re­ward­ing. Re­ward­ing in the sense that many now get to know what the Life­line num­ber is and at the same time, ap­pre­ci­ate an ex­er­cise book which has mo­ti­va­tional sto­ries to read and share.

“School chil­dren are ef­fec­tive in rais­ing aware­ness and with the Life­line num­ber printed on the ex­er­cise books, word will get around quickly.

“We are proud to be as­so­ci­ated with this,” he said.

“Not only this, but chil­dren are the fu­ture of our coun­try. When they read a story and un­der­stand the mes­sage, this mes­sage will remain with them for life and will al­low them to use th­ese val­ues in var­i­ous sit­u­a­tions that they come across in life.”

Staff

Mr Chauhan con­firmed that the com­pany still main­tained its 120 staff, all on full work­ing hours and no one was on pay re­duc­tion. “It is purely be­cause of this they are humbly re­quest­ing all par­ents and guardians to sup­port and pur­chase Ed­u­care ex­er­cise books be­cause it is proudly made in Fiji and through the pur­chase you are en­sur­ing that our cit­i­zens re­main em­ployed and are able to put food on the ta­ble for their families”

Apart from books, Mr Chauhan said the com­pany man­u­fac­tures other pa­per prod­ucts like pa­per cups, pa­per plates, bags to men­tion some.

“We are putting in more designs and images to make it more at­trac­tive.”

Export

Star Prin­tery has also been ex­port­ing Ed­u­care ex­er­cise books to coun­tries like Kiri­bati, Solomon Is­lands and Van­u­atu, to name a few.

“I think the big­gest chal­lenge for us now is to see that we have a big­ger pres­ence in the Fi­jian mar­ket. We need to en­sure that all par­ents are proud of the Fi­jian made prod­uct and en­cour­age their chil­dren to use the Ed­u­care ex­er­cise books.”

“Par­ents can count on our Ed­u­care ex­er­cise books as when they buy our books they are not only sup­port­ing Fiji Made prod­ucts they are also shar­ing the Life­line num­ber to com­bat sui­cide and raise aware­ness on men­tal ill­ness.”

Please sup­port Ed­u­care ex­er­cise books and say no to im­ported books, he added.