Starting his career pathway as a garment factory worker to becoming a nurse and now a lawyer has been a challenge.

This never disheartened Mohammed Aruf Yasin, 41, from being admitted to the bar.

Mr Yasin was one of the 45 University of the South Pacific students admitted to the bar by Chief Justice Kamal Kumar at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on Friday.

Mr Yasin’s petition for admission to the bar was moved by lawyer and Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem.

He was not only studying to become a lawyer, but also worked at the World Health Organisation in the division of pacific technical support rolling out and accepting full responsibilities of the Pacific Open Learning Health Net.

With more than 18 years of professional experience in government and (international) non-governmental organisations in the areas of nursing education, training, and continuing professional development, human resources for health and nursing practice repackaging, Mr Yasin was also looking after his 16-year-old son while his wife was in Brisbane, Australia studying for her Ph.D.

Mr Yasin said studying law while he worked was challenging for him because he had to make sure he managed his time, resources and focus equally to his job and education.

He said while working for the WHO, it got him to see there were a lot of gaps in terms of health and legal aspects relating to health which got him interested because he wanted to fit in the same bench and decided to pursue law.

He said he pursued law not to practice but as he went further devoting himself to it, he became fond of the law programme and decided to join the bar.

“During the journey, it was challenging and one of the big reasons was because I had to make a choice on whether I wished to join my wife in Brisbane or pursue law and stay in Fiji,” Mr Yasin said.

“I received all the support from family and friends that kept me going although the work and study balance was quite difficult.”

“My wife has been supportive to me knowing my love for education has always been there because I was brought up in a very poor, below a middle-class family.”

“I started my education pretty late and graduated to be a nurse in 2003. But I wanted to do more,” Mr Yasin said.

He said education took him from where he was to where he wanted to be and that was possible through the support of his wife, families, and friends.
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