EMPOWERMENT | Noleen embraces her inner strength

NOLEEN Billings is the type of woman embraces her strength and power without reservation.

A polymath, Noleen runs a project consultancy business that offers her knowledge and skills to people.

Before becoming an all-rounder, Noleen grew up in her family estate in Savusavu simply enjoying the island life.

Surrounded by the ocean and forest, Noleen was brought up to appreciate the simplest of things — from eating fresh and healthy food from the garden to enjoying going out to the reef.

Running Noleen’s Consultancy, she has engaged with many individuals and communities in find their footing through project management, project consultation, project scoping, business plans and indigenous Fijian language interpretation and understanding.

Noleen credits her success to her wholesome grounding.

She said she would never exchange anything for the life she had lived back in the Hidden Paradise.

“The freedom of having the open spaces, privilege of living right by the ocean with the forest as a backyard – it was just the most beautiful childhood,” she said.

“Our property was called Vatukuro Estate in Savusavu and the village was our neighbour.

“I went to school at what used to be known as Buca Government School now called Nasavusavu Public School. It was a 15 to 20-minutes drive from home.

“Our school was a multiracial school; we had students from as far as Rabi and Kioa. As the bus only serviced the area in the morning, we would walk home after school.

After primary and secondary school Noleen went on to USP where she studied science but in two years, she made the decision to return home.

Even though Noleen did extremely well in science at school and university, she had always had a love for the English language.

And as luck would have it, Savusavu Secondary School, her high school, was in need of teachers at the time. She became a grant-in-aid teacher at the age of 19.

“I was only 19 and some of the Form 6 students were older than me. During mufti days you couldn’t tell who the teacher was and who was the student – I was so young then.”

During her time there she was able to guide her students and help them pass their external examinations. She taught for four years before deciding to leave Fiji for further studies.

“My students were upset about me leaving but I had to move on,” she said.

“I went to Melbourne and started doing Natural Health studies. It covered everything from nutrition, hydrotherapy, herbal medicine, anatomy and physiology.”

“As life went on, I got married and had two sons. Things started to change when married life came in. I was focused on my children but of course was still doing natural health.

“I worked with Dr Joeli Taoi. We became a team for a while because he was going into his 80s.”

Noleen enjoys helping people recover through natural health and assists many as she can.

Aside from being a natural health worker and teacher, Noleen made sure she thrived in other aspects. She went on to obtain a boat captain license, did scuba diving and did farming for pearl and root crops.

“I’ve come from actually doing the work to now giving advice on it. It’s no use to keep your knowledge to yourself, it’s better to share it with others so we can all thrive together.

“Before my husband passed away, he told me to go do what I do best – learning. He has always pushed me to do an MBA, but it wasn’t for me as I was an outdoor person.

“I wanted to study projects so I can help people use their resources to build something for themselves.”

She went on to study projects at USP and is now running a successful consultancy business focused on projects in Fiji.

She has ventured into eco-tourism in Namosi and is also engaged with ONA Coffee Fiji in the North.

When she isn’t busy juggling all her consultancy work and projects, she finds some quiet time to write.

An avid newspaper letter writer, Noleen’s writing critiques and points out issues of concern to people.

“Writing is my real passion but I’m probably a better writer with shorter script where I can condense things together in a small paragraph,” she said.

“Being a writer is very challenging, but I love it. When I write I don’t like to use fancy or big words because I know there are students reading as well.”

Nowadays, Noleen does not contribute as much as she used to with her letters.

But when she has the time, she shares her thoughts through writing, advocating for change, motivating others to think differently and inspiring people never stop dreaming.