New Women in Business Development (WIBDI) staff members returned home last week, tired but excited about their career prospects, after completing field exercises in Savai'i.

The newly recruited staff travelled to the big island to experience hands-on training as they took part in program monitoring exercises in a number of different locations around Savai'i, according to a press release issued on Monday by the WIBDI. 

They shadowed current WIBDI field agents, with the new recruits helping to conduct a range of inspections and internal audits for WIBDI’s various programs including organic farms, virgin coconut oil sites and fine mat weavers. 

A new WIBDI staff member, Leehannah Lapalapa, said she was happy to go through that experience on the big island.

“I’m here to observe and learn and my aim is to commit to any kind of task I am given,” said Ms. Lapalapa. “I am so happy to experience how to learn how to fill out the forms and I feel more confident in asking the farmers questions about their work.” 

Over the course of the week, the WIBDI field teams schedule included the assessment of program partners across Savai'i. Field team members, some of whom were travelling to Savaii for the first time, began their work with internal audits of organically certified farms within the village of Sili before making site visits to various weavers within their fine mat program. 

Site visits were also conducted at two different virgin coconut oil production sites where field teams conducted site inspections and assessments of raw product and manufacturing processes. For the new staff members, interacting with producers and program members was a new experience and at times daunting. However, their team leaders were there to support the new staff members with the fieldwork.

“Our team leader has been great," added Ms. Lapalapa. “She has helped us understand the information in our inspection form and also we understand how to interact with clients through our training sessions back in the office.”  

With all teams now back in Upolu, debriefing of the training will be conducted before teams return to the field. Program Manager, Marie Enosa, is confident that the new additions to WIBDI will become valuable assets in their ongoing work.

 “Yes, I am happy with the team,” said Ms. Enosa, “they’re young and they are hungry to learn more, it’s really good for them to come on these visits and understand the importance of this work, not only for the program families but also for the environment and Samoa.” 

Another big takeaway for her was how well the new staff interacted with the members of their teams who have disabilities. 

“Part of this training was to train our two deaf colleagues to understand and fill out certification forms, our new staff were making an effort to sign with them and work together. 

"We are an inclusive organisation, we are proud to be part of programs such as SGPP (Samoa Gender Partnership Program) and promoting equality is a big part of who we are at WIBDI so for me, that was a really important achievement.” 

Looking ahead, the WIBDI field teams will now move on to processing the data collected to update program activities and measure success against the program objectives.  

The site visits served as a practical training opportunity in data collection and relationship building between the organisation’s new staff and their program partners. WIBDI – a non-government organisation that supports women and vulnerable community members through agricultural programs – places a strong emphasis on inclusivity and empowerment for both staff and program members. Through consultations with the various program partners, new staff members gained valuable insights on how the work they will carry out supports stronger, more inclusive communities around Samoa.