It has been a long week for the nation which got off on the wrong foot with reports filtering through of the shooting of two police officers in Savai’i.

Barely had we recovered from the Police officers’ testimony of being shot at, while they investigated reports of a marijuana plantation at Salelavalu, and we got to hear of the cowardly attack on a tourist during a Sunday afternoon stroll while in the company of her two children.

The Samoa Tourism Authority (STA) went into damage control, assisting the tourist Megan with her Police complaint and taking care of their bills due to the theft of her bank cards, thankfully bringing a smile to the Kiwi’s face.

Disagreements over the use of a portion of land owned by the Palauli No. 3 MP Lagaaiga Tiaituau Tufuga to build the district committee office confirmed the skirmishes between various parties over the $1 million district grant are far from over.

If stakeholders in the tourism sector thought there would be a silver lining for debt-ridden hotels upon the return of the Prime Minister, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa extinguished those hopes in her first press conference, saying the hotel’s historical debts was a hard decision that needed to be made.

On Friday, finally some good news to usher in the approaching long weekend and the White Sunday celebrations, with the Police identifying a suspect in the attack on our New Zealand visitor on the afternoon of last Sunday.

In welcome news for parents, Deputy Police Commissioner, Papali’i Monalisa Tiai-Keti announced in a joint media conference with the STA that the Ministry of Police and Prisons is reviewing its schedule and will ensure there is police presence in all public areas in the capital Apia.

We welcome the intervention by the Ministry, following the attack last Sunday targeting the Kiwi, which gives assurance to not only our visitors but also citizens and local residents.

But let’s not forget the two most vulnerable members of Megan’s family who were there that afternoon and witnessed the crime targeting their mother – her 4-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son.

Studies from around the world show that children do remember traumatic events and the attacks targeting their mother would have been a scary encounter. 

Megan did admit, in her interview with the Samoa Observer a day after the incident, that she didn’t go into too much detail about the attack when with the Police as she didn’t want her children to relive the experience.

"I did not tell this attack detail to the police woman I talked to yesterday [Sunday] because I did not want my kids to hear me and relive it," she said. "But I went to the police to report my bag missing.”

Now that is totally understandable – we all want to protect our children from life-threatening encounters – and the last thing we would want is to talk about it again in front of our children.

However, that is not to say a child will eventually forget, as psychologists say every drastic event including violence that a child witnesses gets to be recorded in their memory and can have a devastating impact on their lives over the long-term period. We can only pray and hope everything goes well for Megan and her children when they return to Aotearoa following this dreadful experience.

On that note spare a thought for children in Samoa, who are living with or being exposed to similar forms of violence at home, most likely perpetrated by an adult family member who frequently drinks himself into a drunken stupor. 

Godly-intervention has enabled some of these long-suffering children to seek refuge at organisations such as the not-for-profit Samoa Victim Support Group. While the unfortunate ones are tragically left at the mercy of their abusive family members, get to become adults themselves and over the years become abusers themselves to continue the vicious cycle.

Seeing the challenges and the hurdles that our children have to overcome on a daily basis, we take off our hats to churches, non-government organisations, not-for-profit organisations, civil society organisations, donor partners and Government agencies who are working overtime to protect and free our children of violence and evil that could even be lurking in our own homes.

On this year’s White Sunday celebrations we pay tribute to everyone who strives to make a difference for the better in the lives of our children. Happy White Sunday celebrations Samoa!