Alofau Rile of the Samoa Adventist College has won the Year 13 International Youth Day Inter-school Impromptu Speech Competition and walked away with a SAT$3,000 cash prize.

The competition for Year 13 students was hosted by the Samoa Family Health Association (SFHA) on Friday and revolved around the theme, "Green Skills for Youth towards a Sustainable World".

Putting the spotlight on how discussions around the issue of reproductive health in Samoa take the conservative approach, Mr. Rile said the speech competition was empowering for him as a participant.

He added that he has always been inspired by this form of advocacy to promote the well-being of young people and used his speech to highlight sexual reproductive health. 

“This is a very amazing opportunity given that Samoa is a very conservative country guided by tradition and cultural norms,” he said. “This is a platform for us young people to put our voice out there and demand what we need and what we deserve in terms of comprehensive sexual education. 

"It is amazing to see so many young people coming together in this event to share our knowledge. It’s amazing how many of us have an interest, even though Samoa doesn’t really implement comprehensive sexual education in a curriculum. 

"It’s amazing to see how many young people are here and they have an interest in and support this movement."

Encouraging other youth in Samoa to participate in similar competitions in the future, he said such platforms enable the voices of young Samoans to be amplified further. 

"This event helps amplify our voices, that way we will be able to make a change, by attending such events and publicising it, getting out the message we are trying to share."

Acknowledging the difficulties that one can face, due to sexual reproductive health being a sensitive issue in Samoa, Mr. Rile said he is always keen to talk about it with his friends when given the chance.

“In Samoa, I’ve noticed that we don’t normally have such discussions on these topics, but coming from Fiji we do have Family Life Education so that’s why I am open to discussing this issue with my peers because I’ve studied it and I have quite the broad knowledge on this concept.

“Together with our unified effort, we will be able to bring a change that we want the world to see.” 

The Robert Louis Secondary School (RLSS) came second in the speech competition with Wesley College coming third.