Sivendra a force to be reckon with
SIVENDRA Michael is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to high excellence achievement.
After completing his Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of South Pacific in 2011 this Waiyavi kid continued onto his post-graduate studies while juggling a fulltime tutor position with the Faculty of Business.
A year later he joined the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat as their social policy research officer, where he was blessed to work under the leadership of deputy secretary-general Christelle Pratt and Filipe Jitoko.
“My time at the forum was truly life-changing as I was thrown in the deep-end to work with Pacific leaders on some of the most pressing issues in the region,” he said.
“That experience prepared me for the role of labour standards officer at the United Nations International Labour Organisation (ILO), where I was tasked to work on International Standards Reporting with ILO member states. Again, this was a big step in my career as at that time there were major reporting and compliance labour law issues among Pacific Island States (such as the Commission of Inquiry on Right to Freedom of Association case for Fiji), and before them was ILO’s youngest recruit at a national officer level tasked to support countries reporting process, legislative compliance review and labor law review process.
“While I learned a great deal from working in both the Forum and ILO, I was often encouraged by my supervisors to further my education, which inspired me to take-up the NZAID Pacific scholarship in mid-2015 to pursue my Master’s degree at the University of Auckland.”
He said getting an international education may feel quite ordinary to privileged families, but for him it was a dream, a dream that he had since his experience of studying abroad in the US under the USP Exchange Scholarship.
“Making the decision to get on that plane was like a world-war battle for me as I had to leave behind my eightmonth daughter (Sophia Rosalie Michael), a full-time job and the very friendly smiles of the people I considered family,” he said.
“I knew I was going to pull through, but I wanted to make my sacrifices worth it. So, I studied extremely hard and even overloaded my schedule with extra units, just so I can go home for Christmas.
“In 2016, I graduated with a First Class Honour in Economics, making me the first Fijian to graduate with a First-Class Honour.”
He is the lead facilitator with Active Citizens Global Programme in New Zealand.
Active Citizens is a social leadership training program and they build trust and understanding by supporting people to take action on issues they care about. The program is designed to show people how their actions at a local level can have lasting effects and social action projects are an important part of making that happen.
“Social action projects are carried out for the good of others.
They are principled, wellplanned and make use of local and global links. They bring together people, organisations and networks to improve wellbeing for the wider community and those who might otherwise be marginalised.
“They could raise awareness of anythe thing from rights of people living with disabilities to literacy or politics. Through Active Citizens, we support people to start thinking about how they can work with a community to launch a social action project of their own or, we help people breathe new life into an existing project they might already be involved with. “This is a Global British Council Program and I was trained in 2016 as an international facilitator as it was very costly to get the other facilitators to fly down to Fiji from the UK, so the idea was as part of my professional development, to become a facilitator myself.”
He said the amazing part of the program was that he could then cascade training with other organisation volunteers and support them through to the delivery of their projects.
“So in Fiji, we have 19 organisations that are delivery partners and were trained in 2017 as facilitators. All facilitators are pooled together and together we use the cascade module to deliver training in other parts of the Pacific,” he said.
He is also a Pacific volunteer lead at Splice NZ, Splice is part of Methodist Northern Mission and is an Auckland based charity focused on building wellbeing through community - creating opportunities for people to come together, collaborate and participate in meaningful ways.
“In New Zealand, Splice is the lead partner for delivering the Active Citizen Program and we started working together in partnership since 2017. How I got to associate with Splice was through a former British Council colleague,” he said.
“Apart from Active Citizens, they have some pretty amazing projects which I try to be part of such as “Random Act of Kindness Day”.
He has been shortlisted for the Young Global Leaders 2020 and the One Young World Queen Fellow.
“There are nomination based and I may not be going to either. However, I just want Pasifika Voices to be included in these spaces. If anything, young people in the Pacific need opportunities like this to draw visibility about the work they do. For instance, the work of Pacific Climate Warriors and the Alliance for Future Generation in the respective Pacific Island Countries has gained visibility across social media platforms, but we can track greater visibility across places that are still not aware of what we do in the side of the world that are most affected by climate change,” he said.
He will attend a Social Enterprise World Forum in Ethiopia as a young leader.
During his spare time he spends it with his daughter and he spends time with his PhD colleagues. His message to young people is that self-realisation is a process.
“There will always be questions that hold you back. However, if you say no to the opportunities that are presented before you, are suppressing your inner voice. I know it is hard and I know we have cultural barriers as people of the Pacific, but confide your trust in what you believe in and take baby steps if needed to start conversations, even if it means to just share your inner feelings about something that concerns you. The people that embrace you for you will grow with you and it will inspire many others to follow on.”