SUVA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Three Fijian high school students have died from suicide over the past week alone.
According to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), Lifeline Fiji Officer in Charge Jeremaia Merekula said Friday that suicide can be prevented if family members and friends took a few minutes of their time to talk to people who seemed unhappy.
The youngest person to call in for help recently was an 11-year-old girl, Merekula said, adding that they also received calls from people with disabilities and senior citizens who tend to be suicidal because of loneliness.
Merekula said Lifeline Fiji provided a listening ear to their callers and helped them overcome their feelings of suicide by understanding their situation and providing the necessary help.
Most people who called Lifeline Fiji to seek help were between the ages of 15 to 28 years, said Merekula.
Lifeline Fiji is a suicide prevention helpline and counselling service in the South Pacific island nation.
From 2013 to 2018, 630 Fijians were victims of suicide.
National Committee on the Prevention of Suicide (NCOPS) member Mohammed Hassan Khan said earlier that Fiji should look at the economic costs of untreated mental illness and its cost to society.
"These alarming figures cannot be treated as statistics given some high profile cases involving professionals and students,"said Khan."This is a huge loss of youth."
