She received her calling to stand up and do something for the youths at the tender age of 12.
That was 10 years ago and Vanisha Mishra has never looked backed.
She is an inspiration and a young leader who has always stretched out to work for the youths, which is her passion.
"At the age of 12, without even realising it, I became aware of my destiny. I heard of a young boy no older than I who travelled through India speaking to child labourers and bringing to light their stories," she said.
"Craig Kielburger later founded an organisation called Free the Children -- the largest organisation of children helping children. That ignited my interest in issues affecting children and young people. That was the beginning of my journey."
The 22-year-old lecturer in psychology at the University of the South Pacific is a member of National Youth Advisory Board and Pacific Youth Festival (July 2009) national organising committee and symposium sub-committee.
Vanisha started off by researching issues on the internet, sharing them with friends at school and through the Girl Guides movement in Fiji. Upon reaching secondary school, she wanted to make more of an impact, so she started an organisation called Girls in Action, which aimed to help Fiji children in 2001.
"It was at this time that I became involved in youth issues internationally. I was the international children's representative for the African Child Foundation but very quickly realised the work I wanted to do was rooted firmly in Fiji," said Vanisha.
The Suva-born and bred girl is also actively engaged in research projects and putting together youth friendly documents such as brochures for young people who come in contact with the justice system.
This year, she received a wonderful honour and was invited to the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, to be honoured as an outstanding university student and future world leader.
"I kindly declined this invitation simply because my work is at grassroots level in Fiji," she said.
"I do what I do, because I love it, it's a passion and if there is any recognition to be bestowed, I would rather it be done in the country I work in, the country that I work for."
Her passion for her work, she says, keeps her going in all she does.
"I enjoy what I do thoroughly and when you think about it, it's not really 'work'," she said.
"I get up every morning wanting to do what I'm doing at the moment.
"The world does not owe us anything, society doesn't owe us anything, it is we (as young people) that owe society our time, our efforts and our skills," says Vanisha.
"There's so much in Fiji that can be developed in terms of youth and youth work but at the same time, there is also a lot that can be built on, we already have great traditional and cultural structures that can be built on to help in the area of youth work," she said.
When asked what does it take to become a good leader, Vanisha says, "I think it takes empathy, a degree of savvyness, hard work but I think above all it's about being able to see the common goal of your group as bigger and more important than anything you could possibly want for yourself and seeing it as bigger than any one person".
Doing all that she wanted to do is an achievement for her.
"I've done things that I wanted to do, that have made me happy and that I saw as success and this might not have been how other people viewed it but it's something I believed in and I did. For instance, I got to talk to the President of India about child labour, but what was more of an achievement for me was spending time with children in the Ketti Valley in India and actually talking to them about child labour," she said.
Vanisha will be moving on to complete her PhD this year.
