Sunil Kumar has been promoted to programs director at Homes of Hope, a move that the organisation says will strengthen its community development and training work as it scales recent projects across multiple communities. Kumar, who joined Homes of Hope as a volunteer in 2010, takes up the new role after serving as team leader for Training and Community Development and brings more than a decade of hands-on experience to the position.
Kumar credited a year-long placement in the Leadership Fiji program in 2017 as pivotal to his development as a community leader. After reading about the opportunity in this newspaper, he applied and was selected for the year-long course. “To be part of the program for a year was the biggest self-development for me,” he said, describing how the program pushed him beyond his comfort zone and exposed him to diverse networks and new ideas. “I was able to come out of my shell and explore the different leadership skills we have in us and how we can better use it in terms of improving the way we work, or in how we can better our service to the people we serve.”
In his new role, Kumar oversees a range of community initiatives and a team of at least 16 staff. He leads training programs for girls and has been central to a climate-smart gardening initiative that was implemented across five communities and is now being expanded. Those projects, he said, reflect the practical application of his Leadership Fiji lessons — especially around collaboration, delegation and maintaining personal wellbeing. “Not everything is for me to do,” Kumar said. “Sometimes you need to collaborate, you need to delegate and sometimes you need to let go.”
Kumar’s community work stretches back to his volunteer days and includes fundraising and construction projects. He was part of the leadership group that fundraised and built a home in Koroipita, one of the organisation’s early flagship efforts. The climate-smart gardening programme, which Homes of Hope describes as completed in its initial phase across five communities, is being extended to reach more villages, reflecting a shift from pilot activities to wider implementation under Kumar’s stewardship.
The appointment also carries personal significance for Kumar. Originally from Moto in Ba and now living in Nakasi, he is the son of a canecutter and says his upbringing motivated him to give back to his parents and community. His journey from volunteer to programs director underscores a long-term commitment to community service and capacity building within the organisation.
Kumar emphasises that his leadership approach balances ambition with self-care and realistic workload management. He has encouraged staff to accept only responsibilities they can manage without adding undue pressure. “I have been teaching my colleagues about the importance of saying yes to things you’re able to do and not saying yes to things you’re not able to do because you will add pressure to your work and also to your team,” he said. Homes of Hope’s board and staff will now look to Kumar to apply those principles as the charity moves into a phase of programme expansion and deeper community collaboration.