In 2004, at the age of 14 and into the first term of school, a third former at Fiji LDS Church College in Suva, Tevita Rakai’s world came crashing to the ground.

His father was jailed for six years, he and his three other siblings lived with relatives in Suva, whilst his mother lived back in the village and heavily pregnant.

Upon discussions with his siblings, it was decided that Tevita would leave school immediately and begin a career of wheel barrow boy at the Suva Market by day and BBQ stand operator by night.

This was done so they could survive. He was the second of four children at the time, so the responsibil­ity fell on him to support his other siblings to com­plete their education.

Mr Rakai’s continued to do this into his 20’s and then began to do casual la­bourers work during the day whilst still maintaining his love of the BBQ Stand operation.

“I’ve struggled a lot throughout my life, but I worked hard wherever I worked and a Supervisor with Concrete Solutions no­ticed me.

From then on, I learnt through experience and have never looked back.”

Today, he is a Concreter for Concrete Solutions, work­ing in several on going Nadi Projects for the company.

He was emotional when he added: “This job with Con­crete Solutions, has given me security as I now am 28-years-old and have a wife and young son in Class 2.

“I’m also happy about fi­nally being able to have my FNPF deductions for our fu­ture and most of all the new skill sets I’ve acquiring from this role as a Concreter.”

Mr Rakai’s owns one of the best and longest serving BBQ night stands in Nadi and has two employees who work for him every Thurs­day, Friday and Saturday nights, operating opposite the Nadi Market.

Source: Pacific Building Solution

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