My Leadership in Action, was spent with the Vunilagi Bookclub, a literacy charity based in Fiji. Their mission is to empower children through literacy, fostering a love of reading in underserved communities, breaking the cycle of poverty and opening doors to a brighter future. The programme has been running for seven years and has expanded to operating in a number of locations on Viti Levu, with a new programme being set up in the community on Beqa. It is a community lead organisation, one which works hand in hand with communities, being flexible to the needs of the community by providing a template with which to engage children in literature and help develop their reading skills. The Vunilagi model offers a scalable and replicable framework that can be adapted across villages, settlements, and communities throughout the Pacific.

My time with the Vunilagi Bookclub was predominantly spent with the community in Nanuku settlement, working with the community leader there to help sort and distribute donated books, and create engaging reading sessions of the children to develop their love of reading. I was especially inspired by the enthusiasm of the secondary school children, who’s reading skills, critical thinking, and passion for reading led me to help create activities specific for them to help stretch their reading skills. I raised my ideas in a general meeting of the charity and so with a couple of other volunteers, we created activities and pulled together interesting reading materials. For instance, in one reading session, we read the short story Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov, first learning new vocabulary, then discussing our impressions of the characters, then using drawings to encourage the visualisation of the descriptions. While many of the children are very competent readers, it was clear that often they were not often thinking about the images, characters, themes, and plot of the stories. Therefore exercises like these really helped encouraged an engagement with literature that was different and more enjoyable than the rote learning style of engagement with books that was common among their schools. 

I also acted as spokesperson for the Vunilagi Bookclub when the High Commissioner of Cook Islands visited Nanuku, speaking in the impact and importance of the charity. It is clear that literacy charities in the Pacific, like Vunlagi Bookclub, are incredibly valued despite their scarcity. 

As much as I tried to inspire the children in their engagement with literature, it was their recurring presence at reading session and their enthusiastic engagement which was truly inspirational. Nanuku Settlement is one of over 171 informal settlements in Fiji as identified by the UN Habitat in 2016. Informal settlements in Fiji are often characterised with these legal, social and environmental conditions: there is no legal status of the occupancy; housing standards and environmental conditions are inadequate; and the level of access to services and infrastructure is low. So to see the children’s passion and energy displayed throughout the reading sessions, in spite of their disadvantaged background, was truly heartwarming and a testament to the vital work of the Vunilagi Bookclub. It is clear that the efforts of the charity touch all of the community members not just the next generation. 

The experience of my Leadership in Action project was an invaluable and unforgettable broadening of my perspective. It has shown me new ways in which books are important in a variety of people’s lives and has displayed to me the massive impact that being passionate can have upon other people’s lives.