ASCADSV hits another milestone — providing needed services to American Samoa

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The American Samoa Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (ASCADSV) reached another milestone in its ongoing services to individuals, families, and communities in American Samoa, when it closed its six-week programs: ‘Design & Sewing’ and ‘Pallet Furniture Carpentry Work’ last Friday, June 28th.

In acknowledging the achievements of the participants, a graduation ceremony that was held at ASCADSV’s main office on Tolu Street in Tafuna, Lions Park, climaxed the programs’ activities.

ASCADSV is a non-profit organization that advocates for human rights in every sphere of life. Its mission and vision, specifically, is to cater to the needs and safety of the victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.

Inevitably in American Samoa, these victims and survivors, at most, are women and children.

Apart from combating violence and assault, ASCADSV is also committed to empowering effective participation and contribution of women and men in the development of individuals, families, local villages, and multi-ethnic communities.

Through the American Samoa Government’s Department of Commerce (ASG-DOC) Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) — in constant collaboration with ASCADSV — the empowerment initiatives and projects are made available for the people of the territory to be trained, up-skilled, and developed for their own potential benefits in terms of living self-sufficiently, find employment, or to become entrepreneurs by starting their own small business.

Unique and exciting in this year’s community service programs hosted by ASCADSV was its ‘Design & Sewing’ and ‘Pallet Furniture Carpentry Work’ projects. According to Executive Director, Mata’utia Liliu Tapuai-Mailo, “the project’s main intentions of being original, creative, and working something beautiful and worthy has served its purposes.”

Participants have not only learned how to design, cut and sew their own puletasi, ie-moega, taga-aluga, dresses, and so forth, but they have also discovered how to make quality sets of furniture from pallets. As you may be well aware, pallets are usually discarded, thrown away, and even used as fire wood.

With this project, however, we showcase to our people that good quality furniture can be made out of them. This is simply “recycling of pallet wood” as Rev. Tafailematagi Muasau, ASCADSV chairperson stated. Producing furniture this way is cheaper and it helps low income families get quality furniture for their homes.

For this year, a total of 20 women and young girls participated in the programs. The sessions were open to the participant’s own choices and interests.

“What inspired me throughout the programs’ process,” Mata’utia excitedly said, “was the spontaneous spirit and enthusiasm of both the learners and the instructors. To them, every other day was spirit-filled with either a new pattern to be designed and sewed, or a new furniture piece to be designed and made.

These projects are for women and men in their journeys to seek and acquire empowerment in community services, Mata’utia stated.

The awards ceremony was well attended by special guests, relatives and friends of the graduates, ASCADSV’s executive board of directors and staff. Rev. Vaatausili Faiilagi, an ASCADSV board member, opened the event with a word of prayer following an official welcome address by executive director, Mata’utia Liliu Tapuai-Mailo.

A brief projects narrative for 2019 was presented by the director, followed by speeches from DOC representatives and the two instructors - for sewing, it was Gabriel Jr. Buscato, and for carpentry, it was Ata Wiley.

The attendees were able to share with the graduating participants the importance of ASCADSV-DOC’s collaborative initiatives in empowering women and men in the local community. The women and men who completed the courses, after showcasing produced items, were awarded gifts and certificates. In reciprocating honor and in appreciation of the skills and experiences received from the projects, they presented gifts to the instructors and honored guests as tokens of their gratitude and appreciation. The event concluded with a feast and entertainment to celebrate the momentous occasion.

ASCADSV acknowledges the sponsorship and contributions of local businesses, especially HC Papalii Laulii Alofa and Paramount Builders for the monetary donation to buy timber for the project; Laosamoa and Samoa Systems for the pallets; and, StarKist Samoa for providing and transporting the pallets.

ASCADSV highly appreciates the invaluable contributions to this year’s project, not forgetting the gracefulness of its volunteer workers, and always looks forward with excitement to upcoming events.

“Fa’afetai tele lava i o outou faiva-alofilima aulelei. Ia fa’amanuia le Atua i lo outou soifua tautua i le atunu’u ma ona tagata. Soifua!” said Mata’utia.