Five students walked away with prizes from the Samoa Family Health Online Essay Competition 2023 awards ceremony at the S.F.H.A conference room in Moto'otua on Monday.

The main objective of this competition was to find the level of understanding amongst students, particularly for those in Year 12 and 13 about how educational institutions can play a crucial role in raising awareness, fostering empathy and preventing gender-based violence.

A total of more than 20 students’ submitted entries to this competition based on the theme “The role of education in combating gender-based violence” and only top five were selected for the awards. According to the Executive Director of SFHA Lealaiauloto Liai Siitia, she was thrilled to have received more than 20 participants from different schools.

She said this gives them the idea to design more programmes for young adults to express their thoughts and understanding. She said the prize money is not important but for young people to have the knowledge of how to create a peaceful and violence free environment for Samoa in the future.

“I am so happy because the responses from different schools here in Samoa were much more than what we expected, It shows that young people are willing to talk about these issues which also affect them and their peers,” she said.

“The overall objective was to gauge the level of understanding these young people have. It was great to read through the arguments and solutions that were presented. It is assuring to know that such an exercise can promote awareness on gender based violence and reproductive health.”

Christina Slaven, a student from Robert Louis Stevenson College, and the winner of the Samoa Family Health Essay competition dedicated her achievement to God while acknowledging the S.F.H.A for the opportunity to be part of the competition.

“I feel very honoured and thankful to our heavenly Father for giving me this opportunity and S.F.H.A for allowing this day to be possible,” she said.

“I’m very glad that this opportunity came to me because before I did not really know much about gender-based violence but now I know a lot more and am aware that this is a serious matter that we need to talk about and discuss.

“It took me a while to write this essay, about a week of research but I have a very positive mindset with writing this so I was very excited to take this essay on. Even though it was a bit difficult, I had a good time writing it.”

As the leading sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) service provider in Samoa, the Samoa Family Health Association (SFHA) delivers family planning and reproductive health services through three static clinics (two in Upolu and one in Savaii), and two mobile units (one in both islands) which visit rural areas and other outer islands three times a week to provide educational and contraceptive services to vulnerable communities.

 The association as the leading and champion of SRHR within the country has been very active for the past years also acting as an advisor on SRHR to the Government of Samoa.