The women's committee of Fuailoloo Mulifanua celebrated their end of year asiasiga (inspection) with each family showcasing their new cars courtesy of families living overseas. 

The President of the Women’s Committee, Fa’ilelupe Su’a, said that she had challenged the committee members to reach out to their children overseas to send or buy cars for their families in the village. 

She said a few weeks ago eight new cars arrived in the village and four more are on the way but the celebrations began nevertheless. Some families in the village received more than one car from their families overseas. 

On Monday some families were able to join a convoy with their already used cars while others are still waiting for their new cars to arrive.

One family according to Mrs Su’a has four children overseas, so they each sent a car home. That family has a truck, a van and two taxis. Another family got sent two cars. 

Now that all the families in the village have at least one car, Mrs Su’a said no one has to catch the bus and then spoke of the success her committee has had to improve homes in the village.

She said these included the promotion of sanitation during food preparation by the different families which compelled them to push for change.

"Last year I told the women that I don’t want to see any child cooking food outside because the weather was going to be bad," Mrs Su’a said.

"As a result families bought kitchen ware, like ovens, gas or kerosene, rice cookers, and so forth. Some even built an extension to install a sink for washing dishes and cooking."

Today each family in the village has a water tank which she said was made possible by the women’s committee’s fundraising activities, especially bingo.

“ We started with $5 tala a fine if one does not attend a meeting," she said. 

From there the women committee built a dynamic force of collaborative women who would stop at nothing to better the living standards of their families and the village. 

And they could not do it without the support of their children living overseas, she added.

Mrs Su’a told the Samoa Observer that in a European-designed house was built also by the women’s committee in 2020 to house their Peace Corp volunteer.

But things did not go according to plan due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, consequently the house is used today for doctors or nurses who visit the village for work and also for other guests of the village.

They are also looking after the primary school’s canteen with the women’s committee providing the food. 

She told the women of the committee and the village that if they felt that they did not have enough money to purchase their children’s lunch then they let her know so she could still feed the children and they pay later. 

"It was important for the committee to not let any child go hungry," said Mrs Su’a. 

The parade of cars on Tuesday was done between 7am and 9am with all the cars parked next to each other, giving a Christmas feeling to the residents of Santa Claus arriving in the village, due to the festive atmosphere. 

The police were also present to ensure safety on the roads and there also a live band with bombastic speakers with women dancing and celebrating as they waited for a feast to mark the occasion.

Mrs Su’a thanked all the families and children of her village residing overseas for helping with the realisation of their dream.