The Assistant Minister for Youth and Sports Hon. Iliesa Delana has urged the elders of Namasimasi village in Serua to be role models and provide timely and effective guidance to their young people.
Hon. Delana was at Namasimasi to close a week-long Multi-Skills Training organised by the ministry for the youth of Namasimasi, Namuamua and surrounding villages in Namosi and Serua provinces.
“Our youth are prone to influences from the outside world that will always affect their public conduct and being effective members of your community,” said the Assistant Minister. “It is your duty as elders to provide timely and necessary advice to guide them towards success.”
“As rural youths, they are bound by their traditional obligations and customs to the vanua and we are to ensure they appreciate and value their cultures and traditions and display respect towards their elders,” added the minister.
“They are to be motivated to value the richness of their natural resources that if fully utilised, it will bring them prosperity,” Hon. Delana told the elders of Namasimasi village.
Namasimasi village headman Damatino Tikovala said; “Our young people are genuine villagers and all they know is farming.”
“However, they are easily attracted to foreign influences which sometimes unsettled our peaceful co-existence as a community,” said Tikovala.
“But they are hardworking farmers and a dalo exporter from Navua comes to our village every Wednesday to buy dalo from the youths,” added the village headman.
Tikovala quipped that the youth in Serua need to be constantly reminded and taught how to manage their resources and how to save their earnings to help improve their livelihood.
Hon. Delana told the youth and elders in Namasimasi “that the ministry can and is ready to provide financial literacy and other related trainings to help improve their skills and knowledge and provide empowerment.”
He has also urged the youth to use idle lands and pursue farming as a source of income to help develop their village and sustain their livelihood.