From Youth Volunteer to Career and Business: Six Young Solomon Islanders Share Where It All Started

For many young people, the journey from school or university into a career, business or leadership role does not always begin with a clear plan.

Sometimes, it begins with simply saying yes to an opportunity.

That was the message from an International Youth Day 2026 conversation featuring six young Solomon Islanders whose journeys have taken them from volunteering and youth activities into careers, creative industries, entrepreneurship and community storytelling.

Held under the theme “Where It All Started: From Youth Volunteer to Career and Business,” the discussion explored what happened between starting out and where they are today.

The guests were Yvonne Ono, Project Officer for a Digital Youth Project with Save the Children Solomon Islands.

Jessica Lapo, Humanitarian Focal Point with Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood

Hency Charles, Lead Physical Trainer at the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Gym

Hahe Designs, an award-winning multidisciplinary creative designer

Dream Events, a team of best friends building a small event-management business

Telebere News, a youth-driven online news and multimedia platform focused on stories from young people and rural communities.

It started with an opportunity

The conversation challenged the idea that successful young people always have their careers mapped out from the beginning. Instead, the six stories showed different pathways shaped by experience, relationships, learning, volunteering and the willingness to try.

Yvonne Ono: From volunteering to youth development

Yvonne Ono reflected on her early involvement with the Honiara City Council Youth Division and how volunteering became part of her journey into professional youth development.

“At that time, I was a student,” she recalled, explaining how youth activities helped her build experience, explore her interests and understand where she wanted her career to go.

Jessica Lapo: Finding purpose through experience

For Jessica Lapo, early involvement in youth activities and volunteering also shaped her professional journey.

Today, she works with Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood, with a focus that includes young people and reproductive health.

Her story shows that career pathways do not always follow a straight line. Through volunteering and community involvement, Jessica gained experience working with people and developed skills that later became important in her professional life.

Hency Charles: From volunteer to trainer and leader

Hency Charles’ journey has taken her into fitness, training and leadership. Today, he is the Lead Physical Trainer at the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Gym.

Looking back, Hency emphasised confidence and perseverance.

“Even though your journey may be slow, keep moving forward.” For him, early experiences helped build discipline, confidence and the ability to work with others.

Creativity, business and storytelling

For Hahe Designs, the journey has been driven by creativity. Working across interior and spatial design, fashion, product design and event environments, Hahe has built a career in a field that is not always seen as a conventional path.

“We just followed our passion. We put passion before money.” The story demonstrates how talents developed through youth experiences can become professional opportunities.

Dream Events began with friendship.

A group of best friends who enjoyed working together turned a shared interest into a small business focused on event management. Their journey shows that entrepreneurship does not always begin with a formal plan.

Sometimes it starts with people deciding to create something together, then learning how to manage financial pressure, uncertainty and the challenge of working with friends as business partners.

For Telebere News, the journey has centred on storytelling. The youth-driven online news and multimedia platform was created around a perceived gap in the way stories about young people and rural communities are told.

“This is a platform to tell the stories and news.” For young people who may feel their opinions do not matter, Telebere offers another lesson: sometimes the opportunity does not already exist — you must create it yourself.

The reality behind the success

While social media often presents the finished product — the job title, successful business, award or completed project — the journey behind it can look very different.

The six young people spoke about difficult moments, including failure, criticism, financial pressure, uncertainty and times when they considered giving up.

Their reflections showed that success is not only about where someone is today, but also what they experienced along the way.

What volunteering gave them

One of the central questions was simple: What did volunteering give you? For young people who question volunteering because it does not provide immediate financial reward, the stories offered a broader answer.

Volunteering can help young people develop skills, build confidence, meet people, take responsibility and learn how to work with others. For the six guests, it became a way of discovering their strengths, building networks and understanding what they could contribute.

A message to young Solomon Islanders

The six young people are now doing more than building careers for themselves. They are managing projects, supporting communities, training others, creating businesses and telling stories that matter.

Their journeys also demonstrate leadership — not simply as holding a position, but as using skills and opportunities to contribute to others.

As the conversation moved towards the future, each guest was asked what they would tell a young person who may feel lost, unemployed, uncertain or afraid to start.

The message was not that young people need to have everything figured out immediately. Instead, their stories pointed towards starting somewhere — learning, trying, meeting people, asking questions and taking opportunities when they appear.

Start somewhere

The stories of these six young Solomon Islanders offer a simple reminder: their journeys did not start with everything figured out. They started with an opportunity, with showing up, with volunteering, learning, trying and sometimes simply saying yes.

Today, those steps have contributed to careers in youth development, humanitarian work, fitness and training, creative industries, entrepreneurship and media.

Their journeys are continuing, but the message is clear: young people do not need to have their entire future planned today. They can volunteer, learn a skill, meet people, ask questions, make mistakes and try again.

One opportunity can lead to another — and one decision to say yes can change the direction of a young person’s life.