Travelling to Lakeba for the first time, climate activist, Pallawish Kumar did not know what to expect.

Mr Kumar is the assistant youth officer for the Lau Group under the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

He was posted to Lakeba last month for a three-year term. He looks after youth development projects and climate change issues.

Despite knowing nothing about Lakeba except that it is an island in the Lau Group, Mr Kumar looked forward to a new environment and its challenges.

Mr Kumar said he enjoyed his stay in Lakeba so far.

“The people are friendly. I’m loving every minute here,” he said.

“It was hard at first, especially being far from home, but the Lakeba people made me feel at home.

“At times, when I wake up in the morning and open the door I will see a basin of fish, crabs, prawns and root crops. They would drop food at my doorstep, and this made me feel proud to be a Fijian.”

The 23-year-old plans to work with youths of Lau to fight climate change as it was a reality islanders faced every day.

“It is a fight for survival and preservation of our ecosystem. I chose to become a climate activist for this very reason, because the adverse impacts of climate change will be at a completely different scale for our generation and generations to come living in the pacific,” Mr Kumar said.

“My goal and ambition are to work towards a better world where development is sustainable, and no one is left behind. I believe collective work, especially from the youths in the Pacific can bring out this better world that we envision and yearn for.”

“Ever since I got engaged with nature and activities around its conservation, I found the need to reach out to not just the community or my people in Fiji but the world at large,” he said.

“I was lucky to have found the right platforms that acknowledged my work and supported me with ideas and technical knowledge to reach out to many more people with the climate concerns of the pacific and also share our experience in ecosystem conservation.”

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