Page 20 - Islands Business June 2023

HR and Recruitment

PACIFIC LABOUR MOBILITY

WEAVING FIJI-MARSHALLESE LINKS

By Samantha Magick

After six years in the Marshall Islands,
Fijian Verenaisi Bavadra says, “I feel to have
contributed to the development of education
in the Marshall Islands in my own little field.”
The Library Director at College of the
Marshall Islands (CMI) was recruited to work
in RMI after working in library and information
roles at the University of Fiji, Pacific
Community and for Fiji’s library services. She
is one of hundreds of Fijians working in the
country, many of them in the education and
health fields.
She did not know too much about the
country before she came, although Bavadra
says, “Like everybody else, I knew about the
nuclear history of the Marshall Islands.”
Her experience meant she could hit the
ground running when she started, which was
necessary as “there were 120 things to do.”
“They were very clear about it during
the interview, that there was a lot of
re-strategising, a revamping of services
[needed]. We’ve got the building, but we
needed to organise it in a more formal way,
like what is required for an academic library.”
She was also required to prepare a report
for the accreditation body in her first months,
as CMI was preparing to introduce a new
program. Travelling around the CMI campuses
Verenaisi Bavadra
Continued on page 33

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20 Islands Business, June 2023