CHANDRA SHEKHAR - r I personally have worked for children all my life, firstly as a school teacher and simultaneously as a Scout leader progressing to the rank of Chief Commissioner and now Deputy Chief Scout, the highest position possible for a commoner. r I was deeply involved in the NGO sector working for the needy children. r All these opportunities inculcated into me the desire to assist children wherever and whenever possible. r Another drive was the untimely death of my only son. r This left a vacuum in my life. Whenever I see children neglected, my heart cries out for them. r Thus I decided to establish an organisation that would serve the needy children of Fiji at all times.
Compiled by RACHNA LAL
Welcome to Hard Talk, where we pose questions to both top executives and budding entrepreneurs on some of the major issues involving business.
An educated society is crucial for a country’s future and economic well-being.
Whilst in Fiji, we have a pretty educated workforce, there are still some children who even though good in studies, financial difficulties make them drop out of school.
We could help a lot of these children, if we come together as a community, individuals as well as the business community.
HELP a Child Trust (HELP) is a non-government organisation (NGO) dedicated to serving the children of Fiji and has been founded by Chandra Shekhar.
The organisation strives to ensure that every child receives maximum academic excellence opportunity, appropriate health care, counselling amongst other things.
Mr Shekhar is also the former Save the Children Fiji chief executive.
Questions for Chandra Shekhar, founder of HELP a Child Trust Fiji:
1. What sort of assistance are you looking at providing children?
There are several areas that I would like to focus on. Firstly we wish to engage children more strategically in environment protection. Hence we have embarked on an oratory contest with the theme “Impact of climate change and global warming on personal, community and economic development”.
We believe that awareness and commitment must be inculcated in children from young age and as they grow, it will be an in-bred characteristic to be mindful of environment protection. The oratory will also encourage children on how to do research and formulate arguments for presentation, thereby empowering them to be more vocal on major national issues.
HELP will also assist poorest of the poor children with stationery kits and scholarship scheme to ensure all children get an opportunity to maximise in their academic development.
We shall also conduct skills training for school-drop outs to enable them to become employable or develop skills to establish and operate cottage industries. In so doing we would like to revive old traditions and practices such as weaving, knitting and planting exotic trees and plants.
For example we will train small groups of youth in weaving in local communities. One raw material required is voivoi. Therefore a second activity would engage parents to plant voivoi and have it prepared for their children to weave baskets, mats, etc that can be sold for income in the family.
We wish to encourage parents to join hands with the children in such activities. Fiji is blessed with native nuts and fruit trees yet most people find it easy to buy apple, pear etc that is imported. We wish to encourage youths to plant local fruits such as Kavika tarawau, qaradila, etc in quantity and sell in local markets. These could be developed into small value added export industries as well.
2. When you look at the cost of education in Fiji, how would you describe it?
Cost of education is expensive like any other commodity but it is not beyond our affordability. What is needed from people is commitment to ensure their children have the opportunity provided to them.
We have to adjust our priorities and make children’s education a high family priority in their budget. Not forgetting there are other NGOs, Government and Civil Societies always handing out assistance. Yet we find children missing from school. Hence we should not blame high cost but take initiatives to overcome this challenge.
3. What more can or should be done to make education more accessible?
Education for children should be treated as a communal activity. These days we worry only about our own children but it is high time that more able families should assist children from poorer families to access education. School fee should be brought under control by the government so that there is consistency in the fee being charged by all schools over and above what government provides as tuition grant.
Employers must offer scholarship schemes in the areas of speciality that are required by their industry such that quality graduates can eventually be employed by them.
This must be encouraged by Government through provision of tax incentives.
All those employed should have a compulsory contribution from their salary as social tax that should be used to provide additional scholarships for students. There are many employers who already have in-house scholarship schemes. These schemes must be supported and acknowledged by government.
4. Do we have enough scholarships available to provide quality education for those who are eligible but cannot afford it?
We have a good number of scholarships but our young population is increasing which leads to diminishing ratio of scholarships available. That is one reason I am encouraging scholarship scheme from other sources and not only rely on government.
5. How can Government assist?
As said earlier, Government should consider special tax incentive to corporate companies who set up scholarship schemes for students. Government on its own cannot meet the demand.
The second suggestion I made was a compulsory social tax deduction, funds collected from which should be used for study loans to students. If need be a separate department should be set up to administer this.
6. How can stakeholders assist you with your NGO?
Stakeholders have an opportunity to join hands with Help A Child Trust and engage in any of its programmes for children’s welfare. This could be in the form of personal engagement at management level, community work with its employees and HELP or through financial contributions to support any specific programme or project being planned or currently undertaken by HELP.
We also offer membership as an ordinary member or a Foundation member or a financial supporting member or a volunteer offering expertise in the areas of financial management, project management, HR management, policy development, website updates and many more.
7. Why should we ensure we have an educated workforce?
An educated workforce will bring about efficiency, increased production, reduced cost of production, maximisation in utilisation of resources, business industry development and opportunities for growth personally, organisationally and nationally.
Fiji needs growth and expansion in its industries and improvement in quality and efficiency. The answer to this is evolution of a knowledgeable and committed workforce that is in good health.
8. What are things you learnt from your term at Save the Children Fiji?
a. Keep transparency in what you do and commitment to ensure contributions from donors is well-utilised.
b. Have total passion, belief and commitment in what you do and not to be derailed by negative vibes from others.
c. Have sincerity in what you do to ensure that your work brings about a positive impact and not to advocate and make noise as a hollow drum. It is essential to have open, transparent and democratic governance of the organisation and ensure protection of staff employment.
d. Above all have a belief in your own self and capability but remain meek.