Leaders of today have a responsibility to prepare young people if they want a better tomorrow.

That is the opinion of a 28-year-old from the village of Salani Falealili. 

Faleata Wong is a young man providing service (tautua) to his family, village and church.

Faleata strongly believes the youth play a vitally important role in our societies that they need to be recognised and prepared for it.

“It’s not an easy job,” he told the Village Voice.

“But it is very important. Within our families, our parents depend on us to do most of the chores in our families. 

“That’s the same for our villages as well. Whenever we have meetings for our village council, the youths or the young men are always the ones doing all the chores for the matais.

“That’s the same for our churches as well. We have youth groups and the elders depend on them to do most of the chores whenever we have gatherings.”

Faleata reiterated that youths are very important within our communities therefore, we should encourage them to  start preparing for the future.

How?

Faleata said the adults need to nurture and train them.

 “Our parents learnt how to do all the things they know now through observations. 

“And to me, as a youth, if I want to become a great leader in the future, then the proper way to do this is to learn by observing the elders.

“Within our families, our leaders are our elders and our parents. We should observe what they do and how they deal with problems. We can learn so much just by serving them and talking to them.

“That’s the same within our villages, we can learn from the high chiefs in the village not only on how to handle different issues within the villages, but also learn about the language and culture. 

“Oratory is one important aspect of our culture and the house of the matai’s is the right place for you to learn everything you need to know about oratory.”

He went on to say that one important thing we need to remember is to “listen and obey.”

“That is where we get our blessings from,” said Faleata.

“We are the future of our families, villages, churches and country. If we want a better future filled with blessings, then we should always remember to listen and obey anything our parents tell us to do.

“They may be wrong sometimes, but all we need to do is to listen and don’t talk back to them.”