The village of Tanugamanono from children to youth and the elderly had reason to celebrate on Saturday morning – they've agreed to unite against violence perpetrated against women and girls.

The villagers were up early to prepare food before kicking off with a service at 7am which included village champions who were trained by the Salvation Army as part of their effort to tackle violence under their 16 days of activism. 

The village's 12 champions – who underwent counseling training funded by the Ministry of Women Community and Social Development in partnership with the Salvation Army – were attired in orange and black or wearing orange ribbons and badges bearing the logos of the theme of the day. 

Floral tablecloths and a cleaned open fale fono was lined up with chairs seating the participants and guests of the village. A megaphone was used by one the village coordinators to call the surrounding residents to go to the main fale for the commencement of the service. 

Reverend Poasa Toialeva of E.F.K.S and Reverend Umi Pritchard of the Methodist church both conducted the opening service with the latter doing the prayer and the former reading from the Book of Proverbs.

"A wise son makes a glad father but a foolish son is the grief of his mother," said Rev. Poasa, who told the gathered villagers that scholars says the phrase implies that both parents and adults have a role to play. 

"Children are like mirrors. Whatever they see they will copy. So it is our role as adults to have children mirror good deeds."

Salvation Army worker Miriam Simanu gave the keynote address, who stood in for the Ministry of Women Community and Social Development C.E.O. Dr Mema Motusaga, who could not attend. 

Miriam Simanu pointed out in her keynote address that the issue of violence in families is long standing and needed to be tackled.

"No community should have violence," she said. "So we need to talk about the elimination of violence in our homes, we need to also acknowledge the victims, and what they have or still are going through."

Ms. Simanu said that only the communities can heal each other by working together towards achieving a common goal.

Natalie Senio, a facilitator at the training of the village champions, told Samoa Observer that she was very proud of the day's event. 

" We are very proud of the village, they woke up early to cook, and now they are preparing to play cricket as apparently they are known as champions in the game," she said. 

" The purpose of the day is to highlight a village's united stand in fighting against violence in the families. We trained the counselors so now it is their turn to spread the heart of compassion to others in the village."

Ms. Senio said the project is known to work everywhere in the world and she has no doubt that it is working in the village of Tanugamanono.

In an earlier interview with Salvation Army’s Practitioner Clinician, Sailivao Aukusotino Senio, he made reference to the model used by the church-based organisation.

"We  approached the village of Tanugamanono, who agreed to participate then identified 12 people from the village who will attend a two-day workshop to learn leadership skills, and to develop a campaign that they will then go on to implement within the village," Sailivao said.

"The model we use for the workshop is based on building capacity and sustainability through the power of people motivating others to join them, in addressing an urgent challenge and in this case it is to eradicate violence against women and girls.

"We use storytelling as a key method to engage others and what is important about this methodology is that the village has ownership over the campaign so they will decide what is best, not us and we provide training on skills that will be helpful for them to be successful in what they decide to do.” 

Tumau Tafuna'i Fasavalu, a representative of the women and Silinatusa Nanai, a village mayor were both present at the occasion. 

Ms. Fasavalu told the Samoa Observer that the milestone activity is one of the village's achievements for this year. 

"I am quite proud of the village and the proactivity they are sharing with their children and families. It is great to be part of this important event for the betterment of all," she said.

A friendly cricket match was played amongst the villagers followed by a lunch. They also had breakfast after the morning launching of their champions standing up against violence.