A total of 17 athletes attended the two-day training event facilitated by ACE mentors.

"It's not enough that you just advocate on your programme message but [have] to live it," said Mar.

"It is not enough just to learn the messages, because anyone can learn them and deliver them, but to be an example of what you advocate on is the challenge."

ACE Champions have been delivering the messages of "Stay Strong", "Stay Healthy", "Stay Active", "Play True", "Play Safe", "Go Green" and "Be A Leader".

The ACE Programme serves FASANOC's vision to "Inspire the People of Fiji through sporting excellence" via its mission and aims to encourage, engage and empower athlete leaders and communities in Fiji.

"Most of the participants have been actively participating in outreach programmes," said workshop facilitator Matelita Vuakoso.

"But since COVID-19 lockdown, the programme has not been active for the past five to six months.

"This workshop was just to reset and refresh the minds of our champions and get them back into the right mindset and update them on the latest tools to help equip themselves when they go out on outreach programmes.

"This was the first time for our programme to include FNSC and FWCC and our participants including us as facilitators were able to learn new concepts and ideas for the promotion of the programme."

Fiji National Sports Commission (FNSC) representatives Josaia Tuinamata and Vilisoni Rarasea also presented at the event along with Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) representatives Stephanie Dunn and Ili Veibulu.

FASANOC's Athletes' Commission chairperson Hilda Kunau and Women in Sports Commission chairperson Vivian Koster were also present.