Business

BAT Samoa Continues Support to Community Garden Project Amidst COVID-19

September 30, 2020

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30 Sept 2020, Apia Samoa. As the Covid‐19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the globe including Samoa, the community have turned to alternative means such as farming and fishing to make ends meet.

British American Tobacco (BAT) Samoa is proud to assist and contribute through another Community Garden Project as part of giving back to communities.

In ensuring that the local communities succeed in developing farming capabilities, BAT Samoa last year contributed to the Alataua i Sisifo and Vaimauga i Sisifo constituencies community garden project which aimed to empower local communities and promote sustainable living through cost effective farming practices and techniques.

This year, the project is centered around providing gardening tools and knowledge sharing across 6 villages from Savaii in the constituency of Fasaleleaga No3.

With the economic downturn, people have become more and more passionate about farming.

Participants in the project take part in everyday “hands‐on experiences”, from learning to grow and cultivate their own fresh produce, to harvesting.

Technical assistance for this project is provided by Mikaele Maiava, an active council member of the Samoa Federated Farmers Incorporated and a passionate keyhole garden advocate.

“This is an excellent opportunity to entice the youth of the constituency who are currently unemployed to invest their time and efforts in participating and learning from the projects, to help them earn stable income and live a healthy lifestyle”, said Maiava.

“This helps to improve the well‐being of our communities through daily consumption of freshly harvested produce, which is a huge boost in our efforts to help prevent non‐communicable diseases”, adds Maiava.

Seulupe Michelle MacDonald, General Manager of BAT Samoa thanked the Member of Parliament for Faasaleleaga No3 for the opportunity to work in partnership on this project.

“We feel privileged to be able to contribute to the growth and prosperity of Samoa and we thank Namulauulu Sami Leota and his committee for allowing BATS the opportunity to be part of this worthwhile initiative,” said Seulupe.

“The strong collaboration of this public private partnership (PPP) has provided villages to chance to further develop their farming capabilities and promote sustainable growing of local vegetable and crops,” added BAT Samoa’s General Manager.

“BATS has been doing business in Samoa for over 40 years and is committed to giving back to the communities in which we operate through Corporate Social Investment in projects such as this;

“With agriculture being a key priority sector for Samoa and food security and eliminating hunger identified as sustainable development goals, strong partnerships in community projects such as this will assist to achieve these goals especially around this time where the Covid‐19 is a major concern in every aspects of life”.