July 19th, 2025 – Papa Puleia, Samoa. Samoa Women’s Association of Growers (SWAG) continued its mission to support the empowerment of women in agriculture by hosting the latest of its SiamuFest workshops in Papa Puleia, Savai’i over the past weekend.
More than 25 participants including women and young men learnt new skills in food preservation with the SWAG SiamuFest workshops.
An engaging, community focussed workshop series – SiamuFest is designed to equip rural women with skills in sustainable food production through jam and preserve making.
Through these workshops, women can improve both household nutrition and income opportunities by transforming everyday fruits and vegetables into value-added products.
With the support of local Church congregation, EFKS Papa Puleia, Savaii’s first SiamuFest event of the year brought together over twenty women and youth for an exciting day of practical skill development and knowledge sharing.
“SiamuFest is about building skills, confidence, and futures,” said Luna Rossa Lomitusi Ape, SWAG Vice President.
“The energy and enthusiasm among the participants who joined us led to a day of genuine collaboration and partnership..
“We are deeply grateful to the church congregation of EFKS Papa Puleia and our dedicated facilitators and team for making the workshop so successful.”
Over the course of the workshop, facilitators organised participants into groups and taught a range of different jam and preserve recipes as well as cooking techniques, safe food handling and sterilisation practices.
Through these interactive lessons, participants learned firsthand about creating nutritious food products with extended shelf lives, for personal consumption or for income generation.
“Jam and preserve making are great ways to cook and store fruits and vegetables long term,” said Tofilau, Situfu Skipps, SiamuFest Community Facilitator. “Preserving provides households with nutritious foods that can last year-round, extending the life of our seasonal produce and helping us to reduce wastage from harvests.”
The training also encouraged participants to consider how to market local produce turned into value added, income-generating products for special events or markets including tourism operations such as hotels and/or gift shops.
We all know that various areas of Samoa are known for different produce, such as moli saiga from Savaii,” said Louise Main, SiamuFest Facilitator. “Today, we made some delicious siamu with moil saiga straight from Asau – there are plenty of tourists and locals who will gladly pay for a specialty product like that.”
For a number of young women in attendance, the idea of generating income from readily available produce was an exciting possibility with several young women looking forward to utilizing their newfound skills for on-going community projects.
“I loved today’s experience,” said Gloria Fofoaivaoese-Enoka, program participant.
“For me as a young woman being part of a church youth program, we’ve tried a lot of ways to make money for our various projects, I am happy to share these skills with other members of our group.”
Delivered with support from the Tautua ‘Human Development for All’ Program, a partnership between the Governments of Samoa and Australia, SWAG was proud to continue its efforts to support the on-going economic development and resilience of women within local communities.
With more sessions planned across Samoa, SiamuFest organisers are looking forward to expanding access to practical skills and meaningful opportunities for rural women.
“SiamuFest is one of the most unique trainings I’ve seen on island,” said Seutatia Vaai, SiamuFest Program Manager.
“We have already seen powerful outcomes — participants becoming trainees, trainees becoming trainers, micro-businesses starting and new recipes and products being created. It truly is about helping women grow and today’s SiamuFest was a great indication that there is potential to expand the number and scope of our workshops across Samoa.
“We look forward to collaborating with more communities and continue to support the development of our rural women and girls.”
Acknowledgments
As we reflect upon another memorable SiamuFest weekend, SWAG would like to say fa’afetai tele lava to everyone that helped to make our latest workshop an impactful day of collaboration, empowerment and siamu-making magic!
SWAG would like to thank:
Fa’afeagaiga male Faletua EFKS Papa Puleia, Susuga Enoka ma Susi Apera’amo ma le ekalesia for hosting this SiamuFest workshop.
Our wonderful facilitators, and support staff for their incredible work and dedication leading up to and during this workshop.
The on-going support of the Australian High Commission of Samoa through the Tautua ‘Human Development for All’ Program.
Fa’afetai, fa’afetai, fa’afetai tele lava.
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