Tonga Football Staff and the Executive Board members gathered to Vakaloa Beach Resort for one-and-a-half-day retreat with the theme, Lead the Change As one!
Getting out of our daily routine and seeing the world from a different angle!
The first official program, was the Meet & Greet, followed by a buffet dinner at the Vakaloa Beach Resort! All participants attended and they seemed to enjoy everyone’s company. They were also excited to meet with representatives from Vava’u branch, Manatu Liava’a, whilst Penisimani Fatafehi, Office Manager of Ha’api, Rev. Sikaiona, the Chairman of the Audit and Compliance Committee represented the Ha’apai branch, and Mosa’ati Ma’u and Maui Tafea represented the ‘Eua Island.
The very next morning, a breakfast was hosted for everyone prepared by the staff of Vakaloa, and everyone came out fresh ready for a day full of fun and substantial investment.
Reverend Sikaiona Vakatapu, opened the program/retreat with a beautiful prayer to begin our day with, than Lord Ve’ehala continued with the history of Football in Tonga especially when he started to become Tonga Football’s President in 1994. Lord Ve’ehala presented all the Tong Football plans for Ha’apai, ‘Eua and Tongatapu for the next 4 years. It was very interesting!
The second session was about Leadership which was conducted by Lui ‘Aho, General Secretary/ CEO rolled out what is Leadership, and qualities of great leaders. ‘Aho focused on humility, vision and integrity.
Following on, the next activity was for each participant to discover her/his greatest strengths, and what would make her/him become stronger, and how can she/he be effective. This activity was done in three groups, with one question per group. Each group conducted a very productive and dialogued discussion before they presented to the rest of the groups.
The next session before lunch, was focused on Safegurding, this was introduced by Ms Palu Tu’amoheloa. This topic is very vital to all the TFA staff and Exco members to dig deeper into the importance of this topic.
Ms. ‘Ofa Ki Levuka Guttenbeil Likiliki, the Director of the Women & Children Crisis Center in Nuku’alofa also joined us to share her experiences and her expertise. Ms Likiliki stressed out the importance to train people who worked around with children/players. She offered an open invitation to Tonga Football to bring coaches, administrators, referees to train during their safeguard training that is open for public. Likiliki also proposed that Tonga Football compose a framework that is in line with the FIFA Safeguarding Guides.
Before the conclusion of her presentation, Likiliki reminded “do not fear of human right,” because the UN introduced human rights in 1948, but the Tonga Constitution was written in 1875, and the first part was all about the right of a Tongan Male/Female citizens!
Lunch served, and everyone enjoyed!
After lunch, Leadership through motivation kicked-off and was facilitated by Kilifi Uele, the Technical Director. In the completion of this session, Palu Tu’amoheloa lead the next session about the challenges that you/we faced at work and each their individuals’ challenges. This activity was fun but at the same time some of the challenges were real!
The final activities were centred on Labyrinth but because of the limited time remaining, we picked the last two activities which were battles and letting go. Battles involed identifying what one would fight for so she/he could lead the change, write it down and seal it in an envelope already that had already been distributed. These envelopes were then addressed to himself/herself which will be sent back to them in a month’s time.
The final activity was to let go of things/burdens that were not needed in each individuals’ lives, free up themselves, things that were holding you back from being a good citizens. They were asked to write those things down on a piece of paper, stand up and scrunched up that piece of paper and dropped it into the jar of water right in front! That means letting go and you are going to lead the change.
The General Secretary/CEO Lui ‘Aho, wrapped up the retreat by reminding all of one of Ghandi’s quote, “Be the Change You Wish to see in the World.”
‘Aho says,’Therefore since change is inevitable and on retreat mandate “To Lead the Change As One”. Let this change start in me and you today”.
The retreat concluded with an Aloha Dinner at the Vakaloa Beach Resort, and each group performed an item to entertain the crowd.
“I am so pleased that the retreat went out smoothly and we accomplished a wide variety of goals and outcomes,”says Adelaide Tu’ivailala, leader of the retreat team.
“I wish to thank Kilifi Uele, Palu Tu’amoheloa and Meliame Vehikite for the hard work that we did together in the past weeks in order to make this retreat happen. May I also extend my sincere thanks to Lui ‘Aho, the General Secretary/CEO for the opportunity that he has given to us, to plan and to execute our plan”.MALO ‘AUPITO!
End!
