Miss Friendly North 2019 Alitia Kautoga has vowed to continue raising awareness on the protection of the environment.
After being involved with the Vodafone Festival of the Friendly North carnival and attending to community clean-up programs, the primary schoolteacher, who was sponsored by the northern civil service, believes more needs to be done to educate the public about marine protection.
“The message of protecting our marine surrounding needs to sink in with everyone, to seriously think about how important it is to protect turtles and other marine lives,” the Ba lass said.
“I am grateful that I joined the carnival because it took out the shy character of mine and transformed me to become the person I am today.
“I have become someone who strongly believes in environmental protection. I will continue to advocate on this message and work with communities, even if it’s a village.”
Yesterday, the 22-year-old spent time with friends at Hotel Takia, where she stayed the past week.
“It’s been a brilliant week and although I hesitated in the beginning to participate, I am grateful that I got involved,” she said.
“We learnt a lot of things especially meeting new people and as Miss Civil Service, I got to meet all department heads and the Commissioner Northern and it’s such an honour for me.
“This is my first time in Labasa and first year as a schoolteacher and I have achieved a lot and I praise God for that.”
Her family travelled from Ba to support her throughout the week.
