Becoming a channel  of Faith and Peace
with Bernadette Rounds Ganilau

For visitors to the office of the Prime Minister in the Government Buildings in Suva, turning right at the main door is where one is led to visit those working in the hallowed halls of the fourth floor including the Cabinet Office.
Should you look left, you will see through an open door, a diminutive person, usually dressed in beige linen or cotton outfits, sitting at her computer, concentrating on the screen in front of her.  Her only piece of jewelry is a silver crucifix attached to a silver chain around her neck.  This quiet and unassuming person belongs to a powerful group of civilian women around the world who have dedicated themselves to their faith as consecrated lay persons of the Catholic Church, as well serving the wider interfaith communities in which they live and work in.
Ms Elizabeth Krishna, whilst working within the halls of power in the country, leaves her office at the end of the day and commences her pastoral duties with one or more of the organizations she is involved in. These include the Youth and Peace development programme, the Interfaith Search Fiji, the People for Inter – Cultural Awareness, the Pacific Community for Pastoral Care and Counseling, as well as being a religious instructor with the RCIA programme – the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. 
“The values that Christ had and shared with us have impacted on my life, and I know there will be a time when I won’t be as active as I am now so I fill my time with all these activities” said this gentle woman of faith, born into an interfaith family in Kum Kum, 12 miles into the interior of Ba.
 ‘My father is a Hindu and my mother a Catholic and we were all baptized into the Catholic faith”, she says with a smile. 
But while her humble beginnings saw her rise from her village community school to Xavier College and FIT, and from a monthly wage of $40 a month to her present civil service position, Sister Elizabeth remains focused on her duties to Fiji and her people.
Elizabeth started work at the government training centre in 1990 and moved to the Public Service headquarters,  Foreign Affairs, and then in 1997 to the Prime Minister’s office where she has remained over the last 10 years.
As secretary to the Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Major Vilikesa Waqatairewa, her duties are wide and varied, from attending to the public, preparing monthly reports, compiling programmes for the PM, filing the PM’s speeches, messages and press releases, and other responsibilities. Her commitment as a public servant has been tested quite a number of times and through different governments.  Being one of only two or three Indo Fijian staff members in this section, nationalistic feelings have often been openly expressed, but this has not deterred her work and commitment to the government and people of Fiji. 
Her engagement in community work began after the country’s first coup.

“My work with the Catholic Church in the early 80’s and then with the wider community started in 1990 – after the 1987 coup.  Our Archbishop wrote a pastoral letter to our different parishes and the different religious congregations present in Fiji regarding reconciliation.  One of the congregations, the Society of Columban Fathers, took the initiative to do something about reconciliation within the Catholic Church.  Fr. Frank Hoare, Fr Dick Keelan and the late Rev. Paula Niukula organized the first inter cultural workshop which ran for 2 weeks,” says Elizabeth. 
“That was the first time that Catholic Indians and Fijians and Methodist Indian and Fijian participants got together!” 
“This was at the Navesi Catechist Centre and it was an emotional and historical moment for us all. So we stayed together for 2 weeks and there was space created for us to express our views, opinions, feelings and concerns and our vision for our future in Fiji.  Initially there was fear in this space – how and what I am going to say would be taken by others, but after a few sessions were held, we were all quite relaxed.” 
“It was an in depth sharing by all participants present.  That was the first time that I looked at my own back-ground and the history of the indentured laborers into Fiji and the history of the Fijian community.”
After that workshop committees were formed in the Central East, in the North and another in the Western region to carry on the work of what was learned at the workshop.
“Since then I have been involved with the People for Inter Cultural Awareness – conducting workshops for the Catholic communities, parishes and religious organizations. It’s difficult to get people for workshops but we have annual workshops for the Montfort Boys Town students and the Pacific Regional Seminary.”
“I also work with the Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy (ECREA), and was appointed by Archbishop Mataca to be a board member representing the Catholic Church in 2003.   I have been involved in the Peace programme at ECREA where we have deeply dealt with conflict issues, background analysis, tools, in-depth sharing through the process itself and now this programme has been converted to the Youth, Peace and Development Programme and I am still involved with that.”
Elizabeth’s work with Interfaith Search Fiji sees the group get together each month and share with each other chosen themes within the scriptures – what the scriptures say about a certain theme – and then they share a meal at the end.  

“I was born into an interfaith family so I am more comfortable with my father’s Hindu faith then I ever was,” says Elizabeth.
Her work with the Pacific Community for Pastoral Care and Counseling includes organizing and hosting workshops more on the spiritual side, where last year they were fortunate to work with the World Council of Churches to compile a training manual for people who journey with AIDS patients.
Through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) programme, Elizabeth also takes classes for those who are interested in joining the Catholic faith, a 9 month course she has been doing for the past 20 years or so.
“Working with different NGO’s with faith perspectives, cultural perspectives and spiritual perspectives and then working with ECREA on the issue of conflict has enriched me so much more.  I am more respectful of my own culture, about myself as a person, and ask myself why am I doing all these things?  I feel that the courage and strength I have to carry out all this work comes from my faith,” says Elizabeth.
Taking part in the recently ended UNDP/USP/Forum Secretariat workshop in Vanuatu on sharing dialogue and Experiences in conflict Management, Elizabeth’s gentle contribution on lessons learned from her experiences in the community in Fiji in the last 18 years contributed greatly to discussions and sharing.
“Being born and brought up in a poor family – I have struggled in my early life and know and understand the grievances of the poor.  When I was a little girl I was never allowed to speak out – but having undergone the experience I have had I now know the difference and the voice of individuals is important, and even encourage the children in my family to take part in family discussions as much as I can.”
“We have had the privilege at this workshop to sit together with both NGO’s and government and there should be more of that.  We all have a mission to improve our country so if our focus is on the people for nation building then we should come together and at least listen to each other - I may not agree with what you say but at least listen to what you have to say and try to understand from where you are coming from.
“Getting people to sit together, we find commonalities with each other so this is an opportunity to learn from each other.  I also feel that we don’t have to wait for other people to come and initiate things – we have resources in our own country – traditional resources, educated people with skills – we need proactive people to be part of this peace building process.  We don’t have to wait for our children to become youths to involve them – start young.  Start from the children – mould them into a more accepting an understanding individual,” says Elizabeth.
“In my younger days we had no electricity and we had radios and used to listen together, hear stories from our elder folk, we prayed together and did a lot of things together.”  “Now you have young ones glued to the television set and there’s less room for dialogue, prayer, true conversation or communication.  Perhaps we need to resort back to those values more - be more disciplined with our value system, the goodness within our culture and of course the scriptures. Whilst there are some aspects of our culture we need to lose to move forward, there are others we need to hold on to and to teach our children.”