Ambassador’s Speech at the Farewell function
of the Participating Youths to the 25rd Ship for the World Youth
21 January 2013 at the Ministry of Youth & Sports
Commander Viliame Naupoto, Minister of Youth and Sports,
Distinguished members of Fiji Delegation to the 25th Ship for World Youth,
Members of the Ministry of Youth and Sports,
Fiji Alumni of the SWY,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Morning, Nisa Bula, Namaste and Ohayou Gozaimasu.
I extend heartfelt farewell to the distinguished members of Fiji Delegation to the 25th Ship for World Youth or SWY25, who will be leaving in 2 days. At the outset, I wish to extend my sincerest appreciation to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Commander Viliame Naupoto, for constant and enthusiastic support for youth exchange programs. I also wish to thank Director William Naisara and other representatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Fiji for their excellent support for the SWY program. They have also been extremely helpful in making this visit widely known to the people of Fiji.
I also wish to thank the members of the Fiji Alumni of SWY for their hearty cooperation for supporting new SWY delegations. Without their hard work, this program would never have been successful.
To members of delegation from Fiji, I wish to urge you to make sure that your colleagues on board will fully enjoy many good things of Fiji while they are with you, such as hospitality, rich culture and the Pacific sprit or in the ‘Pacific Way’ as you say in this region. During the program, the SWY will make Port of call activities in three representative ports in Japan which are Naha, Kobe and Ofunato. Particularly Ofunato is the place where we are working hard to reconstruct port and industries including fishing, after the Great East Earthquake in 2012, and Japanese Youths there, I believe, are very much looking forward to receiving Youth of SWY and interact with you! Kobe is another place which has come a long way to recovery since Hansin Awaji Earthquake in 18 years ago. We just had a memorial day on last Thursday. They are indeed sad experiences, but I strongly wish that members of delegation would sense the spirit of Japanese people and youth who always aim at beyond the tragedy, moving forward, and never-give-up.
Now it is winter time in Japan, and when delegation will be there it will be around the coldest time. But Youths in Japan wish to welcome you in Japan with the warmest hearts and hottest passion.
Those of you here this morning who are not familiar with Ship for World Youth or SWY program as yet, I wish to appeal to you to take today’s opportunity to get to know all the good thing about this program through interaction with past participants on board so far. I am sure that they will tell you how wonderful their experiences have been.
Fiji and Japan have enjoyed friendly relationship for last 43 years since the Fiji’s independence, and have developed very close relations in many areas. And I feel very happy that SWY program has been able to receive delegation from Fiji for many times. Youths are the foundation of nations, and exposure to international environment with intensive intellectual interaction among Youths from other countries will undoubtedly be the great asset for future leaders. Fiji SWY Alumni is active in social and community development. I heard that they are also working on a cyclone appeal project to assist some school children affected by the cyclone to go back to school. I wish to commend Fiji SWY Alumni for their commitment.
With those words, I wish to conclude my short address and I hope Fiji delegation will have wonderful experience during the SWY25 program.
Thank you, Vinaka Vakalevu, Dhanyabard and Domoarigato !
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THE END.
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