The Samoa Adventist School has made financial and in-kind donations to the Goshen Trust as it kicks off its community service programme for the new year.

The handover ceremony for the donations took place at Goshen Trust headquarters at Moamoa on Friday.

A not-for-profit organisation, Goshen Trust was established in 2009 and is run by a board that meets on a bi-monthly schedule. 

Its main objective is to provide care and support to people living with mental health issues and their families.

Students and teachers from the Adventist School performed songs and interacted briefly with residents housed at the charitable facility.

The Deputy Principal of Samoa Adventist School, Trevor Bauelua, said that the donation is part of the school’s yearly charitable programme.

He said that the school decided to broaden the focus of its charitable programme, which also presented them with an opportunity to raise public awareness of the Goshen Trust and its work.

“We usually do visitation around where Lalovaea is and do cleaning up,” he said.

But Mr. Bauelua said that a donation of $1,500 was collected from students and teachers.

He said the Adventist primary school and college combined have more than 600 students enrolled.  

“The most important part of this donation is for us to be a blessing and bless others," Mr. Bauelua said. 

“We wanted to give the opportunity to our students to get [the] feeling of going out and provide a service to the needy and you can see it in their faces their excitement.

“Despite the challenges we have gone through the last year and up till now, we thank God and praise Him for the opportunities he has given us and as a token of blessing that God has given us; we want to bless others as well.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Goshen Trust, Naomi Eshraghi, said that the school's charitable contributions would be of immense help to the 15 residents currently under the charity's care. 

“It is a much-needed [contribution] at the moment; we are so grateful for this, I believe this was God’s help," the C.E.O. said. 

“The engagement of the youths or Year 13 is most significant because they have to learn about their future, learn about their choices.

“It is very heartwarming that they are seeking answers and looking around and getting informed choices.”

She said that the contribution would go towards offsetting one of the trust's main ongoing challenges: its operational costs.