MEET LEDUA SIGANI OF LAKEBA, LAU

MONTFORT Boys Town won the Tadra Kahani for a record fifth time last week and for a group of young men, there is no better way of passing their message than through music and dance.
One of the students has been behind the two-years-in-a-row win.
He is Ledua Sigani, 20, an automotive engineering student from Waciwaci Village on Lakeba in Lau and the team leader.
"I believe that through music and dancing we are able to spread the message youths would like to share with the world," he said.
Ledua said one could always associate youths with music so it was easy for them to use music as a tool to highlight their concerns about issues affecting youths.
"We are grateful that such events are being organised and we are able to participate."
Ledua said the event was something the boys of Montfort at Veisari looked forward to every year.
He said the show brought out a lot of characters in the participants which the school was not aware of.
"With the show we are able to see some of the hidden talents my peers have and we often joke about it.
"For some, dancing is something we think only takes place in nightclubs but we have come to learn that music and dancing can be a tool of passing our thoughts and views on issues that concerns us."
Ledua said the Tadra Kahani had become a property of the school and it was something they would defend to the death. "I can say the competition every year has been really tough and it is getting tougher and we were glad to be able to take out the overall crown again this year."
Their theme this year was 'Inner Power Struggle' and all who watched the show at the Vodafone Arena will not dispute that Montfort Boys Town's performance was unique and a class of it's own. Ledua said the theme motivated the students to put up a vibrant and colourful performance. "The theme depicts the struggle we face from the womb to the tomb.
"Our hearts and minds are withered with insensitivity, self-righteousness and judgmentalism.
"We have to be life-giving people and celebrate life." He said the 60 students who took part were able to pass on the message in an award winning way.
"Montfort's performance was different from all other schools.
"It was simple but extravagant in the sense of the choreography of the dance moves.
"Our costumes, paints and background was simple and I believe that it was the choreography that made the difference." Montfort was the last school to go on stage, as defending champions, and they stunned the audience and won the accolades of the crowd.
Ledua said the win was a result of the effort put together by the students and staff of the school.
"Our principal was the driving force behind the scene and we also had staff members such as Master Ravin, who was always there for the performers." Ledua said they practised for one and half hours everyday during their free time and classes were not affected by their practice.
"Putting together the show was not easy and a lot had to be sacrificed but it was worth it."
He said the opportunity to give the performers a chance to show the God-given talents they had is something the school will always be proud of. He said the win was an added bonus to the boys and he dedicated it to all the staff and students who worked tirelessly behind the scene.
"This award is also for the old boys who won the award during their years at Montfort."
The school won the Tadra Kahani show in 2001, 2002 when it was known as the Rock Challenge and in 2003 and 2006.
This year it was changed from Tadra Kahani to the Dream Story and Montfort Boys Town gave them something to dream about.

Adapted from Fijitimes Online

MEET RUSIATE SAVUTO OF SAQANI

Rusiate Savuto Vakadewavosa is a die-hard Fiji rugby fan. He has just released a single to inspire our team to the Rugby World Cup in France.
Titled Go Fiji go, Savuto as he is commonly called, hopes his song will inspire Fiji fans to rally behind the team.
"It is something that we need and what the team needs, taking into account what has happened around us," he says.
"I believe if there is a time our boys in France need our support the most, it would be during the World Cup campaign," he said.
Savuto is a Form Seven student at Lelean Memorial School and hails from the village of Lakeba in the district of Saqani in Cakaudrove.
Still in secondary school, this motivated young man has already released two singles and has vowed to release more in the near future.
The outspoken youngster said his love for music was nurtured as he grew up.
Being the only child of a talatala (church minister), Savuto would be part of every church gathering at his home as well as those that involved the community.
This was how he was introduced to music through Christian hymns. Savuto's dad is well known within the Methodist Church ranks.
Reverend Epineri Vakadewavosa is the principal of the Methodist Church Theological College at Davuilevu, Nausori.
Savuto said he first became a choir member when he was in primary school at Lautoka Methodist School.
"Even though we sing at home and in church my first choir was at Lautoka Methodist," he said.
After Lautoka, his father was enrolled at university in the United States of America where he furthered his study and the then young boy was introduced to a totally new environment and of cause new music.
"From Lautoka we had to go to America, and I attended Sycamore Elementary School in California," he said.
"This was also where my eyes and ears were taken away by the varieties of music that young people were exposed to in the States.
"I was amazed and because of the little knowledge and talent that I had brought over from Fiji I was motivated to explore more about music," Savuto said.
And that was exactly what this Saqani man did; he took up music classes for the six years in California.
However, this Davuilevu student said although there is a lot of different kinds of music in the world today, nothing beats the old traditional Fijian singing.
"We have heard so many international musicians thriving in the music industry and for me I still look up to Sakiusa Bulicokocoko and Laisa Vulakoro as inspirations," he said.
However, Savuto said he very much into contemporary music where all kinds of music are blended to bring out something a little bit different.
"I believe there is life in music, and creating melody is something that brings out life for me," he said.
Meanwhile the Go Fiji go release is currently number two on a Fijian radio station hit list and this was something he was grateful for.
However, this was not his first. His first single release was titled Na Noqu Timi which was dedicated to the Lelean Memorial School under 19 team that won the Deans Trophy last year.
With an ambition to pursue a career in music, Savuto is looking forward to release an album that would include all his single releases.
"I have made up my mind and I believe I would be able to pursue a professional career in singing," he said confidently.
Savuto said the support he has been receiving has been overwhelming especially from his parents, schoolmates and friends.
Savuto said he would be one of the future stars that would bring back live music to the scene, doing away with programmed music.
"Music is life and of cause the music has to be live," he said.
With his passion for music, this young man brings out memories of the late John Lennon of the Beatles who once said, "As I play the game of life, I try to make it better each and every day. And when I struggle in the night, the magic of the music seems to light the way".

Adapted from Fijitimes Online

MEET MARICA BALEIVANUALALA OF FULAGA

THERE is no substitute for hard work as Marica Baleivanualala can tell you after she won top honours at the Fiji School of Nursing graduation this week.
Becoming a nurse has always been a vision for this young woman who was brought up in Seaqaqa.
Marica said she would not have won the Outstanding Overall Performance award in the Diploma of Nursing course if she had not put in the extra effort in her work.
Marica, 21, traces her roots to Muana-i-Cake Village on Fulaga in Lau but considers herself to be from Seaqaqa where she, her siblings and parents have lived most of their lives.
She is the daughter of a cane farmer and a simple housewife.
Dressed in sulu and jiaba with gafigafi (waist mat) on graduation, it was plain to see how proud she was.
"This is something I did not really expect to win," Marica said.
"I worked hard because I wanted to be a nurse and a good one," she said with a smile but being dux is a bonus and proves that walking the extra mile is not bad after all." Marica is the first in the family to join the order of Florence Nightingale and is proud of it.
"No one in the family has been a nurse and this did not happen to me until I enrolled at the Fiji School of Nursing," she said.
"It was also the reason I had to make it, so I could be the first in the family."
Marica said her upbringing was one she always admired because her parents had seven daughters and two sons to look after. She is the third eldest.
"I was brought up in Seaqaqa and like any other who was brought up in the North, especially Seaqaqa, the usual sights are the sugarcane fields, sugar train and trucks that transport cane to the mill," she said.
"The experience I had from my upbringing was totally different from what I encountered when I enrolled at FSN.
"Everything was new, a culture shock you could say, but I had to adapt fast to the new environment so that I could cope."
Marica did cope very well and her results told the story of her hard work.
"I started school at Vunibasoga Primary School and went for secondary education at Seaqaqa Central College where I completed Form Six," she said.
She went to Labasa College to do Form Seven but left after the first term because she had been accepted at FSN.
"It was the first time for me to leave everyone at home and come to Viti Levu."
And for someone who has been so close to her brothers and sisters Marica admitted it was tough.
"But I knew this was an opportunity I should not miss because I would need to help my parents when I get a job," she said.
"I managed to survive at FSN partly because of the support I was getting from my family in Suva, especially my late uncle Mitieli Baleivanualala and other relatives. I owe them a lot.
"Graduating was something I had been looking forward to since the day I enrolled at FSN and to be recognised for the effort and hard work I put into my studies is really overwhelming but my studies do not end here."
Marica will do her internship at Nabouwalu Hospital in Bua where she can travel to and from Seaqaqa to visit her family but it is not the end of the road because she wants to pursue a degree in medicine.
"I want to be a doctor."
According to Marica the secret to success is to trust in the Lord and respect the advice given by elders.
"I would like to encourage those who are willing to take up nursing to take the challenge and be part of the family.
"Nursing is a noble profession and I challenge young people there to try it."
But above all, the country girl says that the key to all achievement is hard work and more hard work.

Adapted from Fijitimes Online

MEET SEVULONI RATU OF VUDA

It is hard to believe that Sevuloni Rokomatu Ratu is the mentor for hundreds of Red Cross Fiji volunteers.
Ratu, 21, is the HIV/AIDS program team leader and a source of inspiration and motivation for thousands of youths.
His job is to help them grasp the hard facts of life and to live responsibly.
Providing young people with the right guidance and correct information may be a difficult task for some but not for him.
Being able to do something for people is what gives him the greatest satisfaction.
He is handling a two-week HIV/AIDS awareness workshop at Red Cross in Suva where 22 participants from five branches are being trained.
The trained participants carry awareness work.
Ratu hails from Lawaki Village, Vuda, outside Lautoka.
After completing his high school studies at Vishnu Deo Secondary School, Ratu was in search of a job where he could help out people.
"When I was young I always had the passion to help people," he said.
"When I grew up, I was looking for a job that reflected this passion.
"It was a little hard to find such a job in the beginning."
That changed after he acquired formal skills.
In 2004, he did a one-year course in business and secretarial studies at the City Education Institute and a six-week course in computing with the New Zealand Pacific Training Centre.
Ratu was confused about where to go and finally decided to join the Red Cross Lautoka branch towards the end of 2004.
"When I joined the Red Cross, I felt I had come to the right place. I never looked to find another job since. I was only 18 years old then but I knew there was so much I could do," he said
"I did not know about Red Cross in depth but I knew it helped out people in need and those with problems so I was willing to take up that challenge," he said. Ratu started off as a health and welfare program officer.
"My focus was to care for people with disabilities and running sessions for people with lifestyle disease.
"I used to go around schools with other colleagues doing puppet shows and teaching students about HIV/AIDS, drugs, alcohol and lifestyle diseases.
"Joining the Red Cross was a boost to my career and finally I felt I was settled.
"I knew I was engaged in doing something that contributes to the society," he said.
Ratu was later promoted as the master peer educator on HIV/AIDS.
"My role here was to go out to the rural areas in Lautoka and let people know about HIV/AIDS," he said.
For some of us going out to the community and preaching about a topic seen as taboo can be pretty difficult but not for Ratu because that was what he wanted to do from the start.
He was called to the Suva branch in March as the HIV/AIDS program team leader and required to monitor all HIV/AIDS projects run in Fiji.
"I have to keep track with what's happening in all the 14 branches and see the implementation of all our programs with feedback on progress," he said.
The biggest challenge for Ratu was working with different communities but he has learnt to overcome that.
What triggers Ratu to get going is one of the seven principles of Red Cross.
"One of our principles says no to discrimination on race, gender and religion. We have to stay neutral and this is what gets me going and made me overcome many barriers that came my way.
"I enjoy what I do because I know I am passionate about it."

Adapted from Fijtimes Online

MEET NASI TAGI OF TAILEVU

FOR many young people fresh out of high school, the subjects they took in school for their future career path do not always turn out the way they expected.
Most of the time, the unthinkable happens.
Some who studied art subjects in high school end up working in the science field or the other way around.
This was the case with Nasi Tagi who completed secondary education with her sights set on a career path in the field of information technology.
But after securing her passes in the IT field at NZPTC, she had a change of heart and moved into the hospitality industry.
"I joined the tourism industry because in my view it is the largest and ever-expanding industry right now," she said.
"And for me, coming from one end of a totally different career path to this has been an eye opener.
"But I am grateful to the staff that I work with in the food and beverage department.
"I studied IT at the NZPTC but after completing my studies, had a change of heart and decided to join the tourism industry.
"For me, the tourism industry or working here at the Warwick is interesting because we get to meet and interact with a lot of people from all walks of life and see many things.
"In my field of work we meet a lot of people from different backgrounds and from across the world.
"Tourism has its advantages and for me right now I have been learning a lot of things as I work."
The 23-year-old lass from Tonia Village in Tailevu said when the opportunity came to start work at the Warwick's food and beverage department, she grabbed the chance.
She has been with the Warwick Fiji Resort for the past four years.
She started as a wine waiter at the resort's Seafood restaurant.
Four years down the road, Nasi has been promoted to be hostess of the Papagalo, the resort's Italian restaurant.
In the years she has been with the Warwick, Nasi has also entered the Bartender and Waiter of the Year competitions.
"I entered the Wine Waiter of the Year competition in 2005. It was the first time I entered.
"I came fourth but I learnt a lot from the other competitors who have helped me a lot in my work.
"I have a long way to go in the tourism field and I aim to gain experience from my senior colleagues."
However, at the back of her mind, Nasi says she is still keen on furthering her knowledge in the IT field.
She is keeping her options open if and when she changes her mind and leaves tourism. "I am keeping my options open.
"I am still young and there are a lot of opportunities out there for young people.
"Young people need to think hard and have options available to them so they can always have something to fall back on or do in the future."

Adapted from Fijitimes Online

MEET AKESA DROTINI OF NASAIBITU, WAINIBUKA

Akesa Drotini walks every morning along the gravel and dusty road from her village to school.
The one and a half mile walk is long for someone her age, but she walk with a dream to represent her country one day.
This lass is set to showcase her talent as she tries to outshine other runners at the Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa later this month.
Drotini, 14, may be the youngest in the athletics team but to her size does not matter.
The slim runner could not believe her ears when she was told she would be representing her country this year.
The specialist 3000 metre runner is expected to be one athlete who will attract attention as she takes on other athletes who are much older and bigger than her.
This shy Wainibuka lass is one who does not do a lot of talking, but she does where it matters most on the track.
She is a Form Two student of Wainibuka Secondary School in Tailevu.
"I live at Nasaibitu Village in Wainibuka," she said.
"And I walk to school and back home every day."
Kesa, as she is known among her peers, is a little girl with the very big ambition of achieving greater things in athletics.
"The first time for me to compete competitively was during the Milo Games, where I won a bronze medal," Kesa said.
However, things changed for Kesa when she went up to Class Eight.
"My parents told me that I can not achieve anything if I do not give everything I have so I started to commit myself to training," she said.
"I train at school with the teachers and when I am at home it is my parents who continue to push me to do my best and I believe this is my biggest achievement in life.
"I ran in the 3000 metres race at the Coca-Cola Games and I was not surprised when I won gold because I knew I had trained hard for it," she said.
Kesa said the moment she received the gold was one of the happiest moments in her life as she remembered the hard work she had to endure before competing.
"I would like to have that feeling again in Samoa," she said.
Kesa said she knows it will not be an easy task to be up against the best from the Pacific.
"I know it won't be easy, but I will give it my best shot even if I have to be carried away from the finish line," she said.
One would not be surprised with the attitude Kesa has because her mother, Vasemaca Drotini was a sprinter during her young days in Ra.
Kesa said her mother hails from Nalidi, Nakorotubu in Ra.
"She was a 50 and 100 metre champion, but I have opted to run the 3000 metres," she said.
Kesa said she had been given the full support of the people of Nasaibitu as well as from her fellow students at Wainibuka Secondary School.
She has been travelling to Suva every fortnight to train and said her parents really had to scrape through thick and thin to send her for training.
She admits that while she hopes to have a bright future on the tracks, her biggest drawback is funding.
"At home my father stresses to my other six siblings that whatever we eat and drink at home we should always appreciate it because they want me to go to the Games," she said.
Before heading to Samoa, Kesa has been invited to be one of the athletes from Fiji to take part in the International Amateur Athletics Federation World meet in Osaka, Japan.
She said this would be her biggest build up before she competes at the Pacific Games.
Those willing to assist this young girl on her trip can deposit money through the ANZ Bank account number 9970023.

Adapted from Fijitimes Online

MEET LISA PURMODH

SHE'S following in dad's footsteps but already she has a kick to kaila to.
That's Lisa Purmodh, the petite, locked Australian head-turner who is drumming a swathe through Fiji.
She's the almost elfin super-charged power ranger perched behind the drum kit of Cool Runnings, the Aussie roots-rockers paying a visit to the land of their fathers, doing what they do best making sweet sounds.
Lisa makes no bones about where her inspiration comes from in dad James, the Fiji-born drum master she grew up watching and listening to kicking and rattling away.
Now she has her own foot firmly on the pedal, slowly but surely boom, booming away at the prospect of a Grammy somewhere ahead.
It is the thinking of a winner that makes a winner and Lisa is well on her way.
That her star is in the ascendancy is of little doubt.
She is far more than daddy's daughter basking in the glow of his hand-me-down spotlight.
In fact, in the short time she has thrown herself into music, she has already outshone dad, in some respects.
Lisa was the last Cool Runner to arrive in Fiji for this august tour, flying in from Mexico and Cuba where she was on the road with Caribbean Soul, another Down Under-based calypso-cum-reggae outfit.
"I started on the drums when I was 10," she said at the Dragon nightclub in Suva yesterday as she and dad hosted a drums and percussions clinic.
Despite the lack of courage by local musicians to learn insights into drums and percussions, the backbone of any group gelling with the bass, shown by the poor response, Cool Runnings and Lisa remained upbeat about their back-beat based sounds.
While on tour through Cuba, playing festivals all around the last bastion of communism in the free world, she visited Mexico and Barbados, from where George 'Ital' Gill, the group lead singer hails.
Of course, no one with a half-decent head on their shoulders will think of skipping Jamaica when visiting that part of the world.
Lisa was no different, visiting reggae's land of milk and honey from where the gospel of reggae sent its smoke signals to be deciphered and proclaimed all over the planet.
"I met Bob Marley's uncle while in Jamaica," she admitted.
There she met as well Winston Rodney, aka Burning Spear, one of the original rock-steady apostles of reggae and a host of dancehall, the commercial off-shoot of the spiritualistic one-drop, artistes.
Back home in Oz, she is part of Diaspora, a Afro-funk jazz outfit led by an Ivorian who hails from the impoverished nation that gave the world Alpha Blondy, in addition to Survival Reggae, a group headed by Ghanaian Afro Moses.
When not doing the rounds of clubs, gig venues or private jams, Lisa can be found at Telstra Stadium whenever the South Sydney Rabbitohs play at home.
Then she becomes one of 24 queens who drum up support for one of the two remaining founding National Rugby League clubs.
She suits up in the red and green after being head-hunted while jamming at the Basement, Sydney's premier jazz joint.
As if that's not enough, Lisa, 20, already has eyes of forming a partnership with elder sister Leah, 23, who is a dab hand on bass, a female version of Sly and Robbie and in the making.
She draws inspiration from Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Bob Marley, naturally.
She likes the prophet's Roots, rock reggae track and Babylon By Bus, the album that all self-respecting musicians can learn a thing or two from, no matter that it was set down a quarter of a century ago.
Lisa says she is grateful for the 100 per cent backing she gets from mum, a nurse back home.
Her advice to anyone who wants to do anything well is simple: "Practice, practice, practice." That's why at such a young age, she is already so very mature in the way she approaches her music.
"It is something I've always wanted to do," she says simply.
A lifeless workmate asked, does the lissome lass have anyone special in her life?
To find that out you'll have get to the Dragon any Thursday in August, wait for a break between brackets and ask her yourself. Take as many friends as you can.
Since it has nothing to do with music making, it was not something I delved into.
But if you do, be so ever polite, after all, dad James is just a conga away.
Before you say or do anything remember: Why should dads in Oz be any different from dads doting on their daughters here at home.
At the very least, you'll hear some of the coolest grooves we have had in a while, too long a while, in fact.
As for the future, we can but only urge her on and in the name of her father proudly claim her as one of ours as well.
Jah live.

Adapted from Fijitimes Online