Praneel Anand

Praneel Anand

Fiji

My Life began in a family of farming background, in a small village in the interior of Nausori. I completed year 12 of my secondary education and further studied at the Fiji National University majoring in Computer Science. I am currently employed at the High Commission of India as Administrative Assistant since 2017. In my professional career, I have worked in various capacities and professions such as Operations, Finance and Administration & Procurements. During different stages of my career, I have achieved many goals and implemented strategic plans in executing certain tasks efficiently and effectively. I am a team player and a person who loves to work with different gender groups and ethnicity. As much interested as I am in sharing my thoughts and ideas, welcoming and accepting other people’s views are much exciting to me. I am more of a doer than a talker, that is probably why I love doing community work and awareness campaigns. I appreciate nature and try to work towards improving our environment, surrounding and life.

Since childhood, I have always learned that no matter what changes bring about in our environment, the land never gives up Giving Life. I have used that example in my life many times especially when I get angry, frustrated or disappointed. During these downward moments of my life, I always turn to digging and planting to release the pressure. At first I thought, I was cooling myself down by doing so but later realized that it gave me an opportunity to turn my negativity into positivity. I realized that I was giving life to the plant I was planting, which is a direct impact to the environment and nature itself. I came to understand better when I saw awareness campaigns about global climate issues around the world and how much the world is losing in order to enhance our lives. I am assured that I have actually been contributing towards fighting global warming by planting trees.

I believe that it is the best technique of stress buster and at the same time giving back to the environment from which we all benefit. Since the past 7 years, I have been actively involved in my community and village to create awareness against domestic violence, community disputes and common teenage brawls by using that one simple example of Planting. A lot of individuals have accepted my example which has changed their behavior and action towards violence. They have opted planting over fighting and peace over violence. During the Sustainable Development Conference held in May, 2017 hosted by the High Commission of India, I was given the opportunity to speak about domestic violence and increase in youth crimes. In my talk, I shared the idea of “planting is a stress buster” and explained how domestic violence could be avoided by Planting instead of Punching and how the youths could avoid doing crime by Planting instead of Robbing. The idea was applauded and appreciated by many Dignitaries and guests present during the conference.