Rodney Philemon

Present Happenings

Mr. Rodney Philemon is currently an IT Specialist at the Peace Corps Vanuatu since 2007 till to date.   He is responsible for providing a broad range of information, communications and technology (ICT) support and assistance to Peace Corps assigned to Vanuatu and at the same time providing overall ICT support services in the Peace Corps head quarter in Port Vila. In addition, he is the Sexual Assault Response Liaison Officer at the Peace Corps since 2013. Mr. Philemon is involved in various national ICT Development projects and is the Chairman of the SMART Sistas Girls in ICT program since 2014.  He continued to hold that position till to date and has a key role in developing ICT camp trainings and programming skills for SMART SISTAS program.

Mr. Philemon is also the owner and heading BREJ Pacific General Distribution Limited.  He is has been elected as the chairman of the Board of Directors for the company which was formed in 2015 and offers ICT support to private public and private business organisations including individual needs.

Professional History

Mr. Philemon was previously providing IT Support to the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) from 2017 to 2018. He was a peer mentor for the new IT Specialist at the US Peace Corps Federated States of Micronesia in 2017, and a student mentor for the SMART Sistas Robot Team to Washington DC as Committee. For detail professional career history, contact this email address zoneiz02@gmail.com  and enquire.

Short Term Qualification Training

• Continuing ITS Education Conference, US Peace Corps Office of Chief Information Officer and IT Training, Washington, DC in 2019.


• Attended Local Connections Seminar, US Peace Corps Chief Information Officer and IT Training, Three Days Seminar via Skype for Business with Regional ITSs and ITSs in Europe, Asia and Africa in 2018.


• Continuing ITS Education Conference, US Peace Corps Office of Chief Information Officer and IT Training, Washington, DC in 2017.


• Sexual Assault Response Liaison (SARL) Training, US Peace Corps Office of Safety and Security with Office of Victim Advocate, Orlando FL, USA in 2017.


• Technovation Masters Educators Program, Silicon Valley San Francisco, USA in 2016


• Hope Channel TV Production Training, Suva, Fiji (April-May 2016).


• Peace Corps OCIO’s Overseas IT Specialist Learning Council, Vanuatu in 2015.


• Same-sex Couple Initiative Training, US Peace Corps HQ, Port Vila (Vanuatu) (1st-3^rd Sep, 2015)


• Participation in the webinar: Neurobiology of Sexual Assault, End Violence against Women (EVAW) International – 90 Mins on October 1, 2014.


• CIRT ASSESSMENT Vanuatu, International Telecommunication Union - IMPACT, Port Vila (Vanuatu) (24^th – 26^th Sep, 2014).


• Safe Place Member Training, GLBTQ Inclusive Training, Port Vila (Vanuatu) (18^th Aug, 2014)


• Certificate of Participation to Network & Systems Security Workshop, APNIC, ICANN, NSRC and PITA, Port Vila (Vanuatu) (14^th -18^th July, 2014).


• Overseas Staff Trainer, Peace Corps Fiji – Trained the new IT Specialist for Peace Corps Fiji (1-15^th January, 2012).


• Attendee of the PacINET Conference on IPV6 Training held in Port Vila, Vanuatu from the 13 – 17 September, 2010 to increase awareness of IPV6.


• Overseas IT Specialist conference in Skopje, Macedonia Peace Corps HQ IT Training team – Completed Training of Trainers Workshop in 2007.


• Completion of Barrett Communications (HF Radio) Training Time Management Skills, HRD, Port Vila in 2007.

Extensive Qualification Studies

• Bachelor of Science, Majoring in Computer Science & Information Systems, University of the South Pacific, Laucala Campus, Suva, Fiji from 2005 to 2007


• Attained NZ Higher School Certificate qualification at Nelson College, New Zealand - NZ University Entrance in 2002

Community Development

As part of his denomination and beliefs, he is a committed team leader for Multimedia Events for local church programs and District Level Programs. He has contributed to programmes such as Adventist Music Festiva that is held annually by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and he is a Co-Producer (Annual DVDs since 2012 to present) as well as the Nature Praise programme on Hope Channel Vanuatu TV.

Mr. Philemon was the Tour Coordinator for the Wiles Memorial Singers Tour to San Antonio, Texas, USA in 2015, Wiles Memorial Singers Tour to New Zealand in 2017. He has been part of the Executive Committee of the South Pacific Division of the SDA Church from 2015 to 2020 as well as a member of the Board of Directors on the South Pacific SDA Church Limited.

In other activities, he was involved in National Programs like Fest Napuan Festival, TV & DVD Productions; Namatan Short Film Festivals, Wiles Media Productions, Local Bread Media Productions (Nogat Taem film on "Family Life"),  and involved in producing Live-stream Events for BREJ Pacific General Distribution Limited. He has a lot of involvement with coordinating and organizing the SMART Sistas ICT initiative and mentoring the Global Robotics Challenge trip to Washington in 2017 where over 156 countries participation.

Achievements

• In 2017, a mentor to the SMART Sistas Team for FIRST (Robotics) Global Challenge as the Vanuatu team that consisted of 3 girls attended the Inaugural event in Washington where over 160 Teams from over 156 Countries participated.


• Providing Voluntary support as the Multi-media Coordinator for the Fest’Napuan Music Festival Organizing Committee every year since 2016 in Vanuatu and working alongside musicians and key personnel of the Government.


• He is the founder and/or collaborator in numerous media and communication initiatives, including: the production of television programs with VBTC on weekly episodes about information and communication technology (ICT).


• As the chairman of SMART Sistas, he was a key personnel in providing regular news updates on the SMART Sistas program to the Media and Vanuatu Daily Post newspaper.


• He has been the Technical Team Leader for Hope Channel Vanuatu over the years with the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Mission


• He was the Producer of Sounds of Hope online TV program which has been livestreaming since 2017 that combines talent through music from different SDA youth and church singing groups.


• Philemon is the Multimedia Team Leader with the United States Peace Corps program in Vanuatu.


• He was involved in producing media content for the SDA Church, and church musical band ‘Wiles Memorial Singers’ and was involved in coordinating the tours to Australia, US and New Zealand.


• He is the Founder of a local ICT and multi-media production business, BREJ Pacific General Distribution Limited that provides multimedia services to private and public firms in livestreaming, Television broadcasts, recording events and producing the local Tek Tok ICT TV Show and providing a Document Management System for World Vision Vanuatu.