4th August, 2020 APIA: Women and youth from Asaga village in Savaii have learned sewing and elei skills through a project focused on building the capacity of women towards income-generating opportunities.
The village of Asaga celebrated the official closing of the project last week, where the village mayor or Sui o le Nuu Lualua Tautu thanked the Program Manager of the Civil Society Support Program (CSSP).
Lualua said the 30 participants were selected on a needs basis that targeted unemployed low-income families, all of whom did not have any prior knowledge of sewing or elei printing.
“Our village relies primarily on agricultural farming as our source of income and for daily consumption. We are grateful for this funding assistance which enabled the women of Asaga to acquire the skills to sew their own clothing and their children’s uniforms which is a cost saving for the families”.
Lualua said the project started last year and the initial benefits were displayed during last year’s White Sunday celebrations, mothers sewed their children’s clothes without needing to buy expensive clothes from the stores or pay for a tailor to have them sewn.
He added that the project has provided many with a supplementary income to support their families.
During the closing event on Monday, the Asaga Primary school students proudly displayed their uniforms sewn by the women of Asaga as part of the project.
The Government of Australia committed SAT $32,000, in partnership with the Government of Samoa, through the CSSP under the Small Grants Component of the Samoa Women Shaping Development Programme (Gender Fund) to fund the Sewing and Elei Training Project.
The CSSP acknowledges with sincere gratitude the hard work and effort by the Village of Asaga through its Women’s Committee which culminated with the successful completion of this project. The CSSP also acknowledges the kind support by the Australian Government through its Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
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