Mother tells about her family’s woes

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 30 December 2017, 12:00AM

Four years of no running water and electricity is a real struggle for the Ioane family at Vailele Uta.

Christina and her husband, Maota Ioane, have been carrying a great burden for so long and their only wish is that someday they will feel the joy of having electricity and running water.

The Village Voice team met Mrs. Ioane cooking cocoa beans (koko samoa) yesterday.

“When your house is in between all the others that you can see have running water and electricity, you can only hope and wish that was you,” she said.

“It’s a real struggle for me and my husband.

“We don’t work too, we had jobs before, but we decided to stay home and do our cocoa, pineapples and coconut plantation.

“Those are our source of income and then we have our elderly parents whom we also look after, but they live in the main land.

“Financially I think we are okay because we don’t have children so it’s just my husband and I, but our wish is that one day we will have our own electricity and water.”

Mrs. Ioane said they walked to one of the family to fetch water.

“It’s a mission getting water, but we have to do it because we need it for our daily chores and also for cooking and drinking,” she said.

“A lot of these families that are near to us have water, but we don’t want to ask them because they say that their water is meter and that we have to pay.

“But there is one family who is willing to help us and they allow us to collect water from them without giving anything in return.

“But we give them whatever we have as our way of saying thank you for their kindness and love.

“We walk to fetch water to fill our gallons, its hard work, but we have to do it.”

Asked if they had requested for water and electricity connections, Mrs. Ioane said no.

“We haven’t requested for any water and electricity because we look after our elderly parents,” she said.

“It’s a svacrifice that we have to make.

“That is our only prayer and our wish for the New Year is to be able to have running water and electricity.

“This is a real struggle and we can only wish that one day we would be like those other families.”

If you want to help the Ioane family please contact them on mobile phone number 7223273.

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 30 December 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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