She is young, vivacious and left Fiji’s national team invigorated during their visit to the Children’s Ward at the Lautoka hospital ahead of their match with Tonga at Churchill Park. 

The entire team of 20 players and eight officials paid a special visit to patients in the Children ward, handing out gifts sponsored by Vodafone as part of their community outreach program.

Their visit lit up children’s faces, but it was 5-year-old Lusiane who stole the team’s hearts despite her health complications.

Young Lusiane was hit by a car in Nadi two years ago and could not walk but the courage and strength she displayed touched the hearts of the visiting team and left them inspired.

Fiji captain Savenaca Baledrokadroka said the visit does have a positive impact on the team,

“The feeling after the visit was really good, some of the kids they were unfortunate they don’t have parents,” he said.

“This contributes to our team bonding as well, I could see in the boys that they were touched by the kids inside, I hope it will motivate them.

Fiji team manager, Anushil Kumar said the visit was an eye-opener for the players, who were very emotionally after meeting the children.

“Well this visit is part of our community outreach program where we go out to visit communities, so basically this time we opted to visit the children ward here at the Lautoka hospital,” he said.

“ I think the players are quite emotionally after the visit here so they’ve seen how the children are struggling with the diseases. This surely given them a reason for them to play in the championship.”