Leadership Fiji acknowledges with respect and admiration the many hearts that Joshco Wakaniyasi has touched and inspired through his work and dedication to the special needs community in Fiji and the Pacific.
They also mourn and share the loss of this inspirational leader with his family, who gave up so much and shared Joshco with Fiji and the global community to enable him to advocate and be the voice for the countless others in our special needs communities.
Joshco contributed to Leadership Fiji as a speaker at Leadership Fiji’s Human Rights sessions and always encouraged our participants to challenge him with questions which he would willingly answer without fear.
He was a fearless leader who had the courage to stand up for the many voiceless by lobbying for national policy changes and more recently for the pacific for disability rights.
We remember Joscho for his humour, extraordinary memory and courage to “wheel the talk” as he likes to put it.
He is an inspiration and role model to everyone who crossed paths with him.
He always shared with our Leadership Fiji cohort that the special needs community were paving the way for those that will come after them, meaning that as we age, will we only then appreciate the challenges faced by our loved ones.
Joshco was instrumental in supporting the Leadership Fiji 2005 Alumni as they undertook their fellows project by connecting them to organisations that helped donate mobility equipment for children and adults with special needs.
He shared during one of their fellows outreach projects that everyone was unique and needed their own custom built mobility device to get around, not one size fits all as most people tend to think.
Leadership Fiji recently undertook a project to document and video our very own Adaptive Leadership program and Joshco played a big part of that documentary where he spent a whole day with us sharing his own leadership journey and challenges and how he was able to overcome them and move forward in life.
These Adaptive Leadership documentary videos are part of our leadership programs now.
Whilst they mourn the loss of Joshco, they also celebrate that his legacy will live on with their Leadership Fiji family, Alumni and Fellows and all their leaders today and into the future through his work and the memories they have to share through their Adaptive Leadership program.
