Fainu (Raa Atoll)

Maldives Island
ImageExists=No
island

island=Fainu
atoll=Raa Atoll
location=
population=362
length=1325m
width=500m
male-distance=151.50km
island_chief= Ibrahim Hussain
phone= [phone]
fax= [phone]

Fainu (Dhivehi: ފައިނު) is one of the inhabited islands of Raa Atoll.

The island is marked historical as described by the article Ibn Battuta in Fainu .

Being a small population, the island faces many challenges. Children's education remains a critical issue with every single child having to leave the island for secondary school. The first foreign teacher ever in the history of Fainu School started working in the academic year 2006. Health services are poorly administered. Only two family health workers work in the area with no health post or doctors available. Yet in 31 May 2004, the island won the award for no-smoking by the World Health Organisation.

Other issues such as environmental degradation remains prominent. Maldives Human Development Report 2000 highlighted the poor irrigation system at place which is still unchanged. Also, Maldives State of the Environment Report 2002 highlighted the severe beach erosion problem faced by the island(notably the biggest island in Raa Atoll). Moreover, December 2004 - Indian Ocean tsunami left the island as the second most devastated in the atoll.

In Maldivian writer Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Lutfee's book, "Dhivehi raajjeyge geography", it stated that all two times that Ibn Battuta visited Maldives, he first visited the island of Raa Fainu.