For the first time ever, villagers of different age groups, the young and the old sat down for a 'talanoa' on zero tolerance for violence in the family in the village of Taga.

One of the people creating the conversation is Palanitina Tupuimatagi Toelupe who is highly qualified and experienced in health governance and health system strengthening.

She said in order for Samoans to tackle intergenerational violence they have to start with deep conversations where they involve people of all ages.

The community conversation approach is to ensure that all members of the family and community are able to get together and talk about stopping violence against women.

The Samoa National Council of Women (S.N.C.W.) Spotlight Initiative to end violence against Women hosted an intergenerational community conversations program in Taga and a few other villages. 

Taga has a village family safety committee and a village bylaw that holds everyone including village leaders accountable to ensure there is zero tolerance against women and girls.

This was led by Fono Aoao o Tina Samoa, in partnership with UNDP in Samoa, Cook Islands, Tokelau and Niue. This is a joint European Union and United Nations Spotlight Initiative support to strengthen women's movement and engagement in Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG).

The UNDP Spotlight Initiative program was jointly implemented in partnership with the Government of Samoa. This was led by the S.N.C.W. through the European and United Nations Spotlight Initiative funds, specifically to support women’s movements and strengthen institutional capacity for civil society organizations.

This partnership between UNDP, women's organizations, community leaders, and members of the community these are not just empty words but also manifesting into action the "leave no one behind" principle, "Do no harm" and valuing the human rights approach ensuring that families are safe and live in harmony.

For this week Samoa National Council of Women were in Savai'i to continue their prevention and advocacy program through their member affiliates at Sapapalii, Taga and Siutu. Next week they will be working with Satupaitea, Lano and Asaga.

The community conversations program is an initiative of the S.N.C.W. started in 2020 as part of the support to strengthen and build the women’s movement to better address violence against women and girls.