Jiko Luveni is a Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

an dentist

Dentist

A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...

 who is better known for her work to combat AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

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Luveni was educated at Lautoka

Lautoka

Lautoka is the second largest city of Fiji and the second largest in the South Pacific. It is in the west of the island of Viti Levu, 24 kilometres north of Nadi, and is the second port of entry in Fiji, after Suva. Lying in the heart of Fiji's sugar cane growing region, it is known as the Sugar...

 Fijian School and then at Nabua Secondary School in Suva

Suva

Suva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...

, before enrolling in Adi Cakobau School

Adi Cakobau School

Adi Cakobau School in Fiji was founded in 1948 by the Fijian government as a boarding school to provide a "refined" intermediate education for Fijian girls of rank. It was named for King Cakobau's great-grand daughter. It became a full fledged secondary school in 1954. Its English language...

 in Sawani. She graduated in dentistry from the Fiji School of Medicine

Fiji School of Medicine

The Fiji School of Medicine is a tertiary institution based in Suva, Fiji. Originally established in 1885 as the Suva Medical School. After merger with leading institutions in 2010, FSM is now called called College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences under Fiji National University. It striving...

 in 1967, the first Fijian

Fijian people

Fijian people are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in an area informally called Melanesia. The Fijian people are believed to have arrived in Fiji from western Melanesia approximately 3,500 years ago, though the exact origins of the Fijian people are unknown...

 woman to do so. After graduation, she worked for 20 years for the Ministry of Health, before working for the United Nations Population Fund

United Nations Population Fund

The United Nations Population Fund is a UN organization. The work of the UNFPA involves promotion of the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. This is done through major national and demographic surveys and with population censuses...

 as project manager for reproductive health from 1987 to 2002. She resigned three years ahead of the expiry of her term to take up a post as HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

 project officer for the Ministry of Health, and now works as project manager for Fiji Network for People Living with HIV, a non-governmental organization.

The daughter of a former shopkeeper turned shipping magnate, Luveni hails from the village of Nukuni on the island of Ono-i-Lau

Ono-i-Lau

Ono-i-Lau is a volcanic and coral island in Fiji's Lau archipelago.One of the southernmost of the Lau Islands, it is located at 20.80° South and 178.75° East, and occupies an area of 7.9 square kilometers. It has a maximum elevation of 113 meters. It is 90 kilometers southsouthwest of Vatoa, the...

, in the Lau

Lau Islands

The Lau Islands of Fiji are situated in the southern Pacific Ocean, just east of the Koro Sea. Of this chain of about one hundred islands and islets, about thirty are inhabited...

 archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

. With her husband, Lieutenant Colonel

Lieutenant colonel

Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...

 (ret.) Inoke Luveni, she has five children and seven grandchildren. Her hobbies include tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, softball

Softball

Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

, golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, netball

Netball

Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...

, and volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

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On 27 January 2007, interim Sports Minister Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi

Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi

Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi, is a Fijian politician of Indian descent. He was one of the youngest members to be elected into Parliament in 1992. He has represented the Nadroga Indian Communal Constituency, which he won for the Fiji Labour Party in the parliamentary elections of 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, and...

 appointed Luveni to the board of the interim Sports Council. http://www.fijivillage.com/artman/publish/article_35432.shtml

, Luveni is Minister for Health in the interim government headed by Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama. She is also co-chair of a government task team

National Council for Building a Better Fiji

The National Council for Building a Better Fiji is an organisation established in 2007 by the government of Fiji. Its task is to prepare the People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress proposed by interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, who came to power in a military coup in...

 established to make recommendations regarding "social cultural identity and nation building" for the proposed People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress

People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress

The People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress is a proposed legal document which would complement the Constitution of the Republic of the Fiji Islands. It would establish compulsory guidelines for any government policy in Fiji over the coming years...

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