Rotary assists Samoa Returnees

06 May 2018, 12:00AM

The Rotary Club of Apia has come to the assistance of the Samoa Returnees Charitable Trust (S.R.C.T.) in their request for educational material to complement their weekly literacy programmes targeting young offenders, and at risk group who needs special attention to prevent becoming repeat offenders. 

This week the management of the Samoa Returnees Charitable Trust attended the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club to receive 600 reading books that will boost the resources for their literacy programme. 

S.R.C.T. Director, Fa’afetai Koria, and management staff Doris Tulifau received the books from the President of the Rotary Club, Louise Main.

 “S.R.C.T. is a non-profit organisation that helps Samoans deported from overseas to start afresh, get on with their lives and contribute to their families.

Our goal is to help them in that process, to se to it they receive the opportunities to work, and to ensure they are not turned away because of their past errors, for which they have already made compensation. We are a transparent organisation that is ever advancing for the welfare of Samoa’s returnees,” said Mr. Koria.

The educational material will help start up a literacy programme, as the returnees themselves have expressed the need for this service to complement their service to community. 

S.R.C.T. provides a weekly counselling and computer classes for young offenders registered with the Alcohol and Drugs Court, in partnership with the Ministry of Courts and Justice.

The returnees themselves provide reading comprehension sessions to the young offenders to facilitate the youth literacy programmes. One of the unique advantages for the returnees is that having lived most their lives overseas, they have a strong command of the English language.

 “The ultimate goal for the educational assistance is to lift the literacy rates of vulnerable youth, and better equip them for employment, and other responsibilities of adulthood,” said Faafetai.

Living up to its mission “to make a difference”, the Rotary Club of Apia continues to provide assistance to the education sector of Samoa through donating books to schools, and through scholarships and laptops to tertiary students. Last week in Savaii, Rotary members delivered boxes of educational books to Lalomalava Primary School and to Iva Primary School.

06 May 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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