The village of Satalo Falealili hosted its first performing arts awareness program as part of the Samoa Spotlight Initiative to end violence against women last Thursday evening.

This subproject is part of the Samoa Spotlight Initiative and is rolled out by Samoa Victim Support Group as the implementing partner of the UNESCO Pacific.

The SVSG President Siliniu Lina Chang acknowledged their work in partnership with the Samoa Spotlight Initiative, specifically as a partner of the UNESCO Pacific to address domestic and intimate partner violence against women, through performing arts awareness.

The theme for the performing arts Awareness was “My Village, My Pride. O lo’u Nu’u, O lo’u Mitamitaga’.”

The ceremony started with a prayer by Reverend  Fuata’i Simanu of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa at the Satalo, EFKS hall.

The community at Satalo comprising church leaders to village leaders and men, women and youth looked forward to the program and put in extra effort as part of entertainment that promoted messages to stop violence against women.

S.V.S.G. representative Ale Paepae told the crowd that the programme is built on a performing arts campaign.

“Using creativity and culture that aim to raise awareness while changing attitudes at the village level towards ending domestic and partner violence; this is expected to have cascading benefits to all members of the village,” he said.

The villagers of Satalo participated in the debate sessions as well as the entertainment competitions which were a lot of fun during the night.

There were five in the panel of judges including UNESCO programme specialist for cultures, Ellen Lekka.

She told the Samoa Observer that the initiative focuses on the importance of the creative arts in social advocacy on the elimination of violence against women and girls.

“Performing arts used to address sensitive social issues such as violence in our society is a proven methodology used by social activists globally,” she said.

“Samoan culture is rich in performing arts forms unique to its identity formation, maintenance and heritage.

The approach to advocacy is celebratory. It is intergenerational, age-appropriate, multi-sensory, community oriented, fosters unity and mobilises communities toward conscientisation.”

The villagers of Satalo rocked the stage with their entertainment focused on the topic and sang songs, came up with scripts of women being abused in families as well as debate on chosen topics.

An elderly nofotane of Satalo, Ana Taveuveu Liliva told the Samoa Observer that they are grateful for this programme run by the S.V.S.G.

“This is a very useful programme to people of our village to remind them to put an end to violence against women in our community,” she said.

“We appreciate Samoa Victim Support Group for reaching out and delivering this programme.”

The event concluded on late Thursday evening with a prize giving ceremony for different categories such as debate and entertainment competition. 

All teams won cash prizes provided by members of Samoa Victim Support Group.