Kamal Narayan (pictured) of Navua finds invaluable joy in community work.
"I have seen my father and uncle do community work and that is why I got involved and at the end of the day you feel proud when good results come out," he said.
His first experience as a community worker was when he joined Pacific Harbour Apex Club as a fourth former.
"I was a committee member then and we organised festivals and made donations to the hospital," he said.
Mr Narayan said they also helped needy students and doing such things at a young age encouraged him to be a volunteer worker. After being forced to leave school a year later because of financial difficulties, he joined the Fiji Institute of Technology where he studied panel beating.
He then became the assistant secretary for the Navua Soccer Association in 1992.
"In those times it was very hard to find sponsors and it was difficult to take teams for tournaments in other districts," he said.
"We had to look for donations and my major achievement was in 1993 when we won a major tournament in Nausori."
It was a very proud moment for all involved when Navua won the Fiji Bitter Fiji FACT in 2003.
He has also served as an advisory councillor for nine years.
His term allowed him to undertake projects like building bus shelters and securing sewing machines for women's clubs.
"I also helped many people who were very poor to get family assistance allowance and had to use personnel time to help people," he said.
Another first for him was his involvement with the district's St John Ambulance branch.
"We organised few first aid courses there for women's organisations and villagers in Navua," he recalled.
"We wanted to create awareness among the community members and tell them what to do during accidents and disasters."
To fight crime in the area, he founded the Viwawa Community Policing in 2008.
"There were plenty break-ins and we were forced to patrol the streets ourselves," he said. The area now has a police post.
He says a memorable experience for him was when he apprehended a thief in the Suva City.
"It was in 1999 when I was going past Triangular Prouds near Post Fiji and it was early in the morning when I heard this woman yelling thief! thief!," he said.
He then saw a man running and gave a chase.
"I caught him near Village 6 and gave him to the police," he said. He received a Crime Prevention Award for his bravery.
Mr Narayan said he gets satisfaction seeing poor people succeed in life.
"Once there was a poor girl who was not given a scholarship even though she was very smart and we fought for her. She then completed her degree and is in New Zealand now," he said.
He said he is always against victimisation of people and is always ready to speak out against unfair treatment.
Mr Narayan, who works for University of the South Pacific Foundation Studies Department, is currently the manager of the Rampur Education Society.
