Merry Christmas & Farewell to 2025 — Vodafone ATH Foundation Welcomes 2026 with Pacific First Policy and Bold Commitments
December 23rd, 2025
Chairmans Christmas and New Year message!
Merry Christmas & Farewell to 2025 — Welcoming 2026 with Courage, Clarity, and Commitment
Bula Vinaka and warm Pacific greetings to our Foundation family—our Board, staff, partners, volunteers, World of Difference Charity Partners, communities, diaspora, charities securing grants (Rotary Pacific Water for Life Foundation, Life Line Fiji etc) across Fiji and the Pacific.
As we gather with loved ones, reflect on our blessings, and share the spirit of Christmas, we also pause to honour the journey we’ve taken together in 2025.
This year demanded resilience. It asked us to think beyond today and build for tomorrow.
And you—our Pacific family—responded with heart, humility, and hard work.
We advanced our mission through #VanuaConnect, #PacificConnect, and #GlobalConnect—connecting communities, strengthening local capacity, and forging new bridges with our diaspora and international partners. We cared for mangroves, oceans and hope.
We connected schools and futures. We equipped youth and women with the tools to start, sustain, and scale livelihoods.
We proved, again, that the Pacific thrives when we lead together.
Farewell to 2025: From Spectators to Leaders
If one message defined our year, it was this:
“Stop being spectators.
Become, advocates, champions and leaders.”
We refused to watch challenges from the sidelines. We chose action over apathy, partnership over silos, and courage over comfort.
That shift—from observing to owning—will remain the bedrock of our work.
- We activated communities, not just funded projects.
- We enabled inclusion, not just connectivity—through mSMEs, digital skills, and practical services.
- We embodied climate resilience, not just policy—through Inclusive Climate Action Fiji, coastal care, and community-led stewardship.
- We mobilized the diaspora, not just celebrated it—turning goodwill into skills, networks, and resources through #GlobalConnect.
To every village leader, teacher, youth champion, health worker, entrepreneur, and professional volunteers (academias, doctors, accountants, lawyers, carpenters, charities, CEOs etc) who stood up:
Vinaka vakalevu. You turned intentions into impact.
Welcoming 2026: Pacific First, People First ..2026 is not simply a new year—it is a new season of responsibility.
The Pacific cannot afford spectators. Every delay costs opportunities; every partnership accelerates them. We enter the year with clarity of purpose and bold commitments:
1. Deepen #GlobalConnect: Scale diaspora engagement (from Africa, UK, Asia to Pacific) to unlock mentoring, capital, philanthropists, market access, and specialist skills—bringing global resources home, on Pacific terms.
2. Embed a Pacific First Policy: Prioritise local solutions, local talent, and local ownership in every initiative. Procurement, partnerships, and programs will reflect Pacific-first values.
3. Accelerate Digital Inclusion: Expand connectivity and practical tools—eSIM-enabled registration projects, donations, community studio, and digital skilling for youth and women—to ensure no one is left behind.
4. Strengthen Climate & Community Resilience (Inclusive Climate Action Fiji): Grow mangrove and tree-planting corridors, support adaptation plans, and fund grassroots guardianship of our vanua and oceans.
5. Measure What Matters: Transparent impact tracking, governance excellence, and accountability—so every dollar, device, and day of service delivers enduring value.
6. Unite Sectors, Break Silos: Corporates, NGOs, Charities, Government, and the diaspora acting as one Pacific family, with shared goals and shared wins.
A Message from Our ATH Group Leadership
> “Connectivity is more than technology—it is empowerment.
> When we connect a village, we don’t just add signal bars; we unlock education, health, commerce, and hope.
> Our commitment is clear: a Pacific where no one is left behind.”
Ivan Fong, CEO, Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH)
We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with ATH Group of companies and partners who share this vision.
Together, we will continue transforming connectivity into capability, and capability into community prosperity.
Our Call to Action
To our CEOs, corporate, charity and community leaders: Design for impact, not just profit. Build supply chains that include micro-entrepreneurs and rural producers; invest in skills and sustainability.
To our NGO partners: Move from charity to empowerment. Scale what works, digitise what’s manual, and ensure communities lead.
To our policymakers: Create the enabling environment—so innovation, inclusion, and investment can flourish across islands and industries.
To our diaspora: Be a leader in change. Mentor, invest, connect—bring the world to the Pacific and the Pacific to the world.
Season’s Blessing & Forward Promise
This Christmas, may loloma (love), vakavinavinaka (gratitude), and veiwekani (relationship) deepen across our communities.
As we bid goodbye to 2025, we do so with pride in what we’ve built and humility for the work ahead.
And as we welcome 2026, we do so with renewed courage, clarity, and commitment to a Pacific First future.
We began this journey with #VanuaConnect, strengthened it through #PacificConnect, and close 2025 with #GlobalConnect.
In 2026, we will take #PacificConnect and #GlobalConnect to new heights—anchored by a Pacific First Policy that ensures our region thrives on its own terms.
Let’s stop being spectators and become champions in shaping the future of our Pacific.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Vinaka Vakalevu.
Chairman, Lionel D Yee
Vodafone ATH Foundation
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