Serve those in need

May 18, 2016

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HUMBLED and honoured.

This was Mereia Volavola’s reaction when asked to describe how she felt after being declared the Executive of the Year at the recent Women in Business Awards.

The soft-spoken chief executive of Pacific Islands Private Sector Organisation said she was very thankful for the nomination and grateful that she had won.

“I think women who are in executive positions or in a decision-making seat they should use that influence to help the needy,” she said. “They can use that position to bring the plight of the needy to the forefront and ensure that they are helped.”

Mrs Volavola started at PIPSO in 2007 but the year was going to be more than challenging for her as she lost her husband the same year.

“I guess I immersed myself with work after my husband passed on. Family is always priority and I made sure that I could support my family,” she said.

“Work also provided me with an avenue to deal with the grief.”

Her work is not easy. PIPSO is the premier private sector representative body in the Pacific Islands region and its members are the private sector organisations of the 14 Pacific Island Forum countries and American Samoa.

PIPSO works with regional organisations and donor agencies to strengthen the capacity of its members through consultation, training, mentoring, technical support and funding to enable them to dialogue with their governments on a level playing field.

For Mrs Volavola, her work is about helping others. And when she is not at work she is still helping those in need.

She is a strong Seventh-day Adventist and strictly follows her Sabbath so when the award was being given, she was at home.

“The only thing I do on my Sabbath that requires me to be out and about is being at Wailea in Vatuwaqa where a group of us help the underprivileged,” she said.

Mrs Volavola is also very concerned on the way children have been targeted in sex attacks.

“I think it is time our society wakes up especially with sexual attacks on children and now even on babies,” she said. “What has become of our society?

“Religious and faith-based organisations can help by teaching their congregations on what sexual crime is. I think they can play a big role in stopping this.

“Otherwise, the society can become desensitised to such issues because of common occurrence and we do not want that. I think it is time to wake up and put a stop to such acts.”

Source: The Fiji Times