A community in Vaitele-tai village have decided to take it upon themselves to assist families improve their standard of living and even pay school fees for those who are struggling.

Vaitele-tai comprises two sub-villages with the one close to Saina deciding to walk to talk when it comes to assisting struggling families.

The spokesperson for the village committee, Toi, told Samoa Observer that they collect funds which are saved and can be used to assist families with their children’s education expenses.

"This is an annual event, it has helped in developing each family in our small community. We also collect funds from this, and it goes into our savings. However, the funds we collect is used to cater for our children's educational needs,” he said. 

“For instance, if a family cannot pay their kids tuition fees or cannot provide uniforms that's when we used the money that we saved up. We prioritise our kids’ education and the development of our families.”

The committee comprises fathers and mothers, they then do their assessment of the families and will give them feedback on how to improve families’ living standards. These could come in the form of financial or material assistance.

"If we see an area in which a certain family needs to improve then we help them by providing feedback. So far with this annual event, we have seen a lot of improvement in the families in terms of their environment,” Toi added. 

“Due to feedback that we give them, they are able to use it well and do what they must do. For example, if we go to a family and we see that they need more cleaning in their backyard then we advise them to do so and later on we check on them again if they have done it or not.”

They also consider other projects they could consider doing, but they have other issues in which they need to address before they head out and start their project. But for now, they are only focusing on developing families in their community.

He added seeing the families in his community improve their standards brings joy to his heart because he knows that they are doing a good job for their community.