I feel excited and honoured to support VSAs programme and initiatives here in Kiribati. I have been exposed to volunteers working in Kiribati from a young age and to this day it continues to fascinate me that there are volunteers out there who choose to leave the comforts of their home and workplace to contribute to the development needs of another country.
I completed my degree in Politics and Public Policy and thereafter worked for the Government of Kiribati (GOK) public service for over 7 years with 5 different Ministries holding middle-level and senior management positions. During my time at the ministry, I was successful in building strong connections with key officials across the government. I am also acutely familiar with a broad range of GOK processes and policies and have developed sound political and cultural awareness.
Over the past 2 years, I worked with the New Zealand High Commission here in Kiribati. From there, I greatly appreciated Aotearoa New Zealand’s development support for Kiribati. I feel blessed to have worked with amazing managers who always demonstrated good work ethics, especially that of manaakitanga in their leadership. I developed an understanding of government policies and was able to apply the values that MFAT wishes to convey to partner organizations effectively. These values are closely aligned with those of VSAs and as a Programme Manager in Kiribati, I aim to continue demonstrating these values to my colleagues and partner organisations.
Throughout my career, I have grown to understand the development needs of Kiribati, both from the local perspective as well as that of our partner organisations. I look forward to contributing as much as possible to advise and direct VSAs support to areas of great need and to ensure that each volunteer assignment makes as much impact as possible to the beneficiaries as well as to the volunteers.
