After a successful car show event, Gus Bone Audio Shop donated $10,000 to the Senese Inclusive Education and Tolumailangi Preschool on Wednesday.

The car show was held a few weeks back and the event was a success. The profits from the show was donated to the two organisations.

Senese received a $5000 donation and Tolumailagi Preschool received $4000 and a Bluetooth speaker worth $1000.

Malama Parker, the Early Learning Coordinator for Senese, Malama Parker said this generous donation comes with no surprise as Gus Bone has always been generous with their help.

“Senese is always in need of money. We have a lot of activities going on such as the teacher aids training while the school is on break. We get the teacher aids to come in and do professional development,” she said.

“Gus Bone has been a great partner and supporter of our work. Every year we have Autism Awareness Day and they have always been instrumental in driving these activities for us. 

"It is always our prayer that there will be more people and companies like Gus Bone in the community to support what we do and without the community the work that we do cannot flourish in the future and we pray for more partners like Gus Bone.” 

The owner of the Gus Bone Audio Shop, Manutufatufa Christopher Feesago is always trying his best to help anyway he can.

“We’re grateful that we can do these things and be able to give back and have fun while we’re doing it. All the profits that we made from the car show, we split it between Senese and Tolumailagi pre-school and presented it to them,” he said.

“Thank you to everyone who has helped make this happen. There are so many great people who have helped us accomplish this and without their help this wouldn’t have happened.” 

Papaliitele Teuila Leota, who runs the Tolumailagi Preschool, said that with this money, they will be able to renovate and increase the space of the preschool.

“I have always dreamed of making this space bigger and expanding the room because I have a lot of kids here and there are many more who are yet to come. This is a big blessing for us and the money will be used well for the children,” said Papaliitele.

Senese Inclusive Education Support Services (“Senese”) is a Not for Profit organisation established in 1987 by a group of parents of children with disabilities. Senese provides a learning and support center for children with learning and physical disabilities in Samoa. The ages range from Pre-school to secondary level with some school leavers being recruited as support staff for Senese.  Senese also supports the emotional and mental improvement of disabilities such as: hearing impairment, dyslexia, down syndrome, Autistic Disorder Syndrome (ASD) and vision impaired.

The children that enter Senese’s doors are eligible to receive specialised assistance such as, occupational therapy, sign language lessons, hearing screening and access to speech therapy.  For those that attend a mainstream school, an application for a Teacher’s Aide can be made to Senese where a Teacher’s Aide will be assigned to the child to accompany the child to class, facilitating learning as well as help the student transition into different activities and environments throughout the day.  Parents can also receive guidance and some tutorials/workshops as to how to navigate raising their child in a safe and loving environment.