MEREANI GONEDUA
A 34-year-old man in Ba who leads a group of young unemployed Fijians who trade work on the Barter for Fiji Facebook page has called on young Fijians not to wait around for Government assistance.
Adriu Naisiroki, who runs his own small business of selling cakes and juice at the Ba market, highlighted that youths have a lot of potential and they needed to realize them.
Mr Naisiroki recently received a Government grant from the Ministry of Youth and Sports which he had applied for back in 2018 but he had not sat back waiting for the assistance and had continued with making a living.
“I had applied for the grant way back in 2018, however, I never waited for it and I continued to persevere on with whatever little I had and this is what I want to encourage all youths to do.
“Things may take time but we need to always have something to work on in order to achieve our goal. In my case I worked on selling juice and sweet cakes in the market which helped me and my family a lot.”
“It has taken two years to receive this grant and it has taught me patience and perseverance,” he said.
“Since I applied, a lot has happened. I had purchased an oven that was $1800 which I had just finally paid off to start the business.
“The grant given which includes a refrigerator, cake mixer will be enough capital stock to keep the business going and that is more than I could ask for.”
Mr Naisiroki stated that he would also use this opportunity to assist his group known as the K9E brothers with its current work.
“This is just the start and by trading our services for tools and such, this will enable us to get our own equipment for start-up and this grant can also help us in some of the things we do.”
The group of 10 young men do not charge money but barter their services for anything their customer can provide and whatever they get from bartering their services, they distribute to those affected by this recent pandemic.
Meanwhile, Minister for Employment, Productivity, Industrial Relations, Youth and Sports Parveen Kumar called on the youth to step out of their comfort zone and make use of assistance provided by the Fijian Government through the Ministry so that they can utilise their different skills.
He also commended the two youth recipients of the grant and stated that the grant is to assist the Navitilevu Youth Club in land cultivation and to Mr Naisiroki for expanding his business.