One pair of school uniform for the year

By Nefertiti Matatia 19 November 2017, 12:00AM

Hardship is real for Sulitava’e Samuelu.

This 16-year-old lad says he only has one pair of uniform for an entire year.

“My family is poor and we rely mainly on the land for survival,” he said. “Both my parents don’t work so they could only afford one pair of uniform for me for the whole year.”

He said it was a hassle having one uniform because he would need to wash it every day when he got home from school and wear it the next day.

“Every day I would need to wash my uniform for the next day but sometimes I wash it late, then the following day I wake up and it is still wet but I have no choice, I still need to wear it because I only have one,” he added. 

Sulitava’e told the Village Voice team yesterday his family sold bananas and tauaga for their daily income.

“We sell bananas and tauaga so we could buy food and everything else that we need but it is not enough because my other sibling who is in primary level and I both attend school.”

He is from Leusoali’i and he attends the Anoama’a College and this he said, was an added cost for his family in terms of daily travels.

“The money we receive from what we sell is spent on so many things such as me and my little sister’s school fees, bus fare, stationaries, to pay off the water bill, cash power and so forth.”

He believes that the cost of living nowadays is very expensive and there are so many things that are needed to be done but they don’t have enough money.

Sulitava’e said they don’t usually make the same amount of money from what they sell every day.

“The money we receive today with what we are selling is never the same with how much we could earn tomorrow. It is not consistent and there is no certain amount of money that we could receive daily. 

“Sometimes we are lucky we get to sell so much and sometimes we are not so lucky.”

By Nefertiti Matatia 19 November 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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