2018 Hibiscus Festival: Navara masters the courage to advocate

Listen to this article:

2018 Vodafone Fiji Hibiscus King contestant Mr Trendy Fashion Manasa Navara during the launch of the festival in Suva last week. Picture: SUPPLIED

TO be in the limelight, one must have the initiative and boldness to speak.

According to Manasa Navara this is a personal characteristic or quality that is worth showing on the national stage.

Mr Navara, who is one of the contestants vying for the 2018 Vodafone Fiji Hibiscus Kings crown said mastering the courage to do that is by far for him the best characteristic one must possess even as a young person.

Sponsored by Trendy Fashion, the 21-year-old who hails from Nadala in Tavua with maternal links to Korovou in Ba said the Hibiscus festival offered youths a wide range of possibilities.

The University of the South Pacific (USP) student said he joined the Hibiscus festival as a contestant because of the exposure and to gain confidence, experience through sharing his advocacy message.

“My advocacy message is basically based on the theme of social development with particular emphasis on the recognition and acknowledgement of the inspiring stories of single parents,” Mr Navara said.

“This is something I feel lacks appreciation and more often than not, the stories that could potentially uplift people especially in this day and age is undermined or overlooked.

“I am proud to bring this message into public because I know that these amazing individuals deserve a national recognition for what they go through every day,” he said.
He however applauded the work the volunteers at the festival do every year.

“Seeing how they concert their efforts even with their individual obligations from their normal jobs is just insanely unbelievable. They are the real heroes of the show.”

He said his fear is the thought of miscommunicating with the general public regarding his message.

“I fear that they would fail to understand its magnitude and go on criticizing about everything else without any bit of a compliment,” Mr Navara said.

He said his preparations leading up to the festival this week involved almost everyone every single day.

“Preparation is hectic, but I know it’s for a good cause. My friends in school especially are more hyped up then I am and I would never trade that with anything else,” he said.

Mr Navara said being a Hibiscus contestant was exciting in the sense of experience – meeting new people particularly those that hold high positions in our nation.

He also hopes to learn a lot of things from those who are actually on doing the groundwork every day.

Array
(
    [post_type] => post
    [post_status] => publish
    [orderby] => date
    [order] => DESC
    [update_post_term_cache] => 
    [update_post_meta_cache] => 
    [cache_results] => 
    [category__in] => 1
    [posts_per_page] => 4
    [offset] => 0
    [no_found_rows] => 1
    [date_query] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [after] => Array
                        (
                            [year] => 2023
                            [month] => 12
                            [day] => 29
                        )

                    [inclusive] => 1
                )

        )

)

No Posts found for specific category