People with Big HEARTS! - Are you one of them?

Fijian hospitality reaps rewards

My story began in a cane farm in Seaqaqa in 2009. I had spent a weekend at the cane farm camp observing the labourers.

This was where I met Aselemo Drotini, the mute and deaf boy who worked with cane labourers. I wrote an article about his plight which was read by the Good Samaritans from Helping Hands.

Two years later, the helping hand is back and I'm determined to be a part of it - as an observer and volunteer.

Last month, I joined Margaret Stone and her team from Brisbane, Australia to help them distribute goodies to the less fortunate.

They came in numbers - the disabled, mute and deaf, blind, the broken, children of broken marriages, those on wheelchair, the old and the young - all were included in the charity list, even the students of Lautoka Special school.

As I watched the grateful faces of those who received, I felt good knowing that in the midst of my job, I could still make a difference volunteering to be part of good works like this.

At a HART home outside Lautoka, I met Kamini Krishna, a wheelchair-dependent 26-year -old who lived with her mum, and was always smiling when visitors came around.

On first impressions, Kamini would strike anyone to be 11-years-old or thereof, because of her petite frame and slightly bigger arms.

But what struck me the most was her vibrant energy - how she doesn't allow her physical inabilities to limit her enthusiasm for life, and her joy at having visitors at home.

Her smiles and happy mood seemed to brighten the dull atmosphere in her little room. Despite her speech impairment, she yelled out sounds of greetings anyway. Then she reached out and pulled the arms of the Australian women - Margaret Stone, Aggie Ogden and Kerry Parkinson - to her side. Mrs Stone conducted her usual check ups, as she does with other patients she visits in Fiji like dissecting the past year of their well being. In this case, she spoke to Kamini's mum about the past year of caring for what she describes, ' her favourite girl'.

"Oh sorry, I couldn't find your boyfriend in Australia, but I will

keep looking around for you," Mrs Stone joked.

Laughter erupted in the house as Kamini responded with a nod agreeing to the comment. After all was said and done, I noted how quiet my friend Aselemo Drotini was.

He stood beside me staring at Kamini, smiling for a few seconds and then becoming quiet again.

Local shipping company Bligh Water Shipping offered to take Aselemo, his mother and myself to Lautoka and back to Labasa on their inter-island vessel free of charge.

Aselemo's mum, Disese Drotini said the help from the shipping company made a difference this year as her son managed to return home with lots of things.

"Last year, our airfare was paid

and the kind hearted women from Australia brought back a lot of things for my son. This year, I want to thank Bligh Water Shipping company especially the north manager, Ema Miller who has supported us in this char

ity work. "It means a lot to me as a mother of a mute and deaf boy for people e to help. It makes me feel that my son is a special boy," Mrs Drotini said.