Banking on

Neighbours

Banking on service

By Penny Baba

A BANK officer who puts in a couple of hours work a week towards helping the disadvantaged has won SFSOOO (SUS3SOO) for his social service club Apex. Davendra Dass is the first Fiji citizen to win one of the annual awards

given by Westpac Banking Corporation to

its workers to promote community service.

It is people like Dass, from Fiji’s jetset town of Nadi, on the main island of Viti Levu, who form the backbone of the many social service organisations that try to make life more bearable for the underpriv ileged, the poor and the handicapped in

society.

A loans officer at Westpac’s Nadi branch and a son of a sugarcane farmer, Dass said there were a lot of underprivi leged people in Fiji. “And there are so many of us who can help,” he said. “Those fortunate enough to have a good living standard have an obligation to help those less fortunate.” It is this philosophy on life that led him to be Apex Fiji national pres ident at the young age of 29, after being

national vice-presi

dent and Young Apexian of the Year in the past year and his club president in 1993. He has only been in Apex for seven years.

Although Dass said he hadn’t felt ready to be president this year, no one else

would take up the task. He is passionate about Apex’s 1995 national service scheme the prevention of child abuse and plans an ambitious programme to raise community awareness of the problem and how people can stop it. While in Australia to receive his award certificate from Westpac, he will visit Apex clubs to seek help for the project.

Dass said social service came to him naturally after growing up in a house where politics and service were always discussed. He is the second of four sons of Nadi sugarcane farmer and farmers’ representative Sitaram Dass. Many of his uncles

are involved in politics. “I grew up in an atmosphere full of the importance of poli tics and service,” he said.

Dass was bom at Qeleloa, a sugarcane farming area near Nadi, and attended Nadi

Sangam Primary School and Sangam

College where he was both a prefect and a Head Boy. He said the leadership skills gained at school had stood him in good stead and contributed to a lot of current success. His desire is to help the under

privileged and his leadership positions

have allowed him to attend Apex meetings and conventions overseas to learn new methods to help.

Dass said social service should have many aims, with the ultimate aim being to help everyone have an acceptable standard of living. Young people should be helped to be useful members of society by giving them skills that make them employable

and give them leadership qualities. Those

who couldn’t make ends meet should be given practical help, he said. And social service clubs must be ready to step in to fill a need wherever necessary.

Dass does not limit his social work to Apex. Married with one child, he is also actively involved with his village temple, Nadi soccer, and various youth groups in his district. He takes interest in all sports, although he can no longer play because of a leg injury suffered in 1989.

He loves live and recorded Indian music and the Qeleloa Music Club has its base at his home. A

Dass: service