12 August 2019

SouthSeas Healthcare has commemorated the end of the Cook Islands Language Week (4-10 August) and celebrates Kiribati’s 40^th independence celebration (12 July), which also promotes the preservation of the language, singing and dancing.

Celebrating the rich language and culture of the Pacific Islands is important to SouthSeas as their way of embracing diversity in the workplace.

Events like Language Week and Independence celebrations are crucial in sparking conversations about understanding and valuing Pacific Island languages and cultures, and bringing the team closer together through shared connection and activities.

“We are doing our part by encouraging our staff and families we work with to use their heritage language in their day-to-day communication,” says Lemalu Silao Vaisola-Sefo, SouthSeas Healthcare CEO.

“The celebration is also our way of acknowledging our staff from these islands and encouraging them to speak their first language at work, especially in their interaction with patients and families we work with who have little or no knowledge of English.”

“It is important for SouthSeas to support community efforts to celebrate the importance of language week and making sure we encourage our staff speak their native language take pride in their identity.”

With other Pacific language celebration weeks still on the way, SouthSeas ensures that these are unique opportunities to celebrate diversity and most importantly to gather their staff together in a communal meal as a way of strengthening diversity and inclusivity within the team.

“Celebrating diversity is about making our staff feel valued and special,” says Lemalu.

“These events helped us to engage and also to strengthen the culture of diversity at the same time. We also learned one or two simple phrases from the languages celebrated, led by team members from these islands.”

“Pacific celebrations are important to us and it is a platform for our staff to be more engaged, valuing their culture, identity and language and celebrating cultural diversity within our team.”

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