Miau sa bula Re!
Na yacaqu o Sanaila Raleqe. Au cavutu mai na koro o Tavea ena Tikina o Lekutu ena Yasana vaka Turaga O Bua. Noqu Mataqali o Lasakau, ena Tokatoka o Sawai ena Yavusa o Burenitu I Wai. Au vasu ena koro o Naidiri ena tikina o Malomalo ena Yasana Vakaturaga O Nadroga.
· Tutu vakavanua: Gonedau
· Kau: Vasa
· Manumanu: Visako
· Noqui cavuti vakaturaga: I Rocivo vua na turaga na Tunidau, I Cakaunitabua vua na Gone Turaga na Tui Bua
My primary school education began at Veiuto Primary School. I continued on to finish my secondary education at Suva Grammar School. My parents were both graduates of the University of the South Pacific and were secondary school teachers in Fiji in the 1980's to the end of the 1990's. My dad unfortunately passed away in the year 1997 after a short illness. My mum then the sole breadwinner in the family brought us through to this very day. I have a younger brother who now works for Clay Engineering in Fiji and a younger sister who is currently into her 2nd year pursuing her degree at the University of Canterbury.
I currently work as a Youth & Recreation Officer at the Canterbury Fiji Social Service Trust based here in Christchurch. I basically organise and oversee the running of all the youth programmes that we offer to the Riccarton / Wigram area. Our youth programmes are multi racial and we have participants from all ethnic backgrounds. We target two main age categories, which are 5- 10 years and 11 - 19 years. These are some of the youth programmes that we offer:
PROGRAMME HOLIDAY PROGRAMME YOUTH@GR8 OUT OF SCHOOL CARE | AGE CATEGORY 5- 10 YEARS & 11 - 19 YEARS 11 - 19 YEARS 5 - 10 YEARS |
The programmes have different modes of time basis when it is being run. The Out of School Care is being offered throughout the school terms where children are being looked after as soon school finishes till their parents pick them up after their days work. The Holiday programme on the other hand is only offered during the school term holidays. Whilst the life skill programme which is called the Youth @ Gr8 is an ongoing programme throughout the year on fortnightly basis.
We have some other staff members who help organise the daily activities for the OSCAR and the Holiday programmes. I personally concentrate and spend most of my time with the Life Skill Programme, which is called the Youth@GR8. This is a collective number of youths within the Riccarton / Wigram area whom are being prone to personal and social problems at home and in schools. Often youth workers would know them generally as Youth @ risk. Therefore I have changed the whole nametag and personal views on them by naming our youth group as youth@ great. The name itself inspires an individual that he or she is special and can always achieve their personal goals in life to become a successful person one-day.
Hence fortnightly we go for weekend camps, a day at the confidence course, retreats, tours to heritage parks and sceneries, picnics, sports and we also do community work like clean up campaigns and neighbourhood day celebrations. In these special programmes we provide special talks presented by myself or invited speakers. The aim is to encourage youths that life is best if we take our chances, believe in ourselves and live positively in society. I often enjoy these sessions and found them to be a great learning experience for the youths and empowering for me personally. We aspire to develop social interaction, culture integration, and mainly build personal development for all our participants.
Apart from the above, we also have other youth programmes that directly target Fijian youths around Christchurch. We have a cultural dance (Meke) group that often participates in various events within Canterbury. The focus is to encourage our Fijian youths to know their culture and develop the ability to appreciate it by the expression of traditional meke or contemporary dance.
We also have a Radio youth programme which airs on Plains FM 96.9 every week on Thursdays from 6pm - 7pm. The multi- lingual programme is heard throughout Christchurch and comprises of news, interviews, old folk and traditional Fijian songs.
In the year 2006 the programme was awarded the best youth programme on community radio here in Christchurch. It has been also the medium of gathering information by the Fijian community to update Fijians in the Canterbury region of any important upcoming events.
If there is something I have learnt throughout my whole life and especially working with youths is that " Nothing is impossible".
WE CAN ALWAYS CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.
Vinaka vakalevu.
