Strong village councils can make life easier

By Sarafina Sanerivi 07 November 2016, 12:00AM

Meet Faumuina Muti from the village of Lotoso’a Saleimoa. He is the village mayor and stays with his wife and children at Lotoso’a. 

He was approached by the Village Voice for his opinion on how life is in Samoa nowadays for him and his family. 

And he said, “Life here is great.”

“We are used to the lifestyle we have and it’s nice and easy.”

As the village mayor, Faumuina said he believes life is peaceful in their village because of the strong Village Council. 

“And like I said before, we are used to the kind of lifestyle we have now. Here we depend mostly on the matai’s or the chiefs to guide each and every family and look after our whole village.

“It just makes everything easier when we all understand the roles of the matai’s and that the betterment of the village depends on them. 

“The Village Council makes the decisions for the whole village.” 

As a village mayor he said, he encourages each family to have a plantation to help the families out. 

“We have inspections every month and we always encourage people to have their own plantations because it can help them out a lot. 

“Not all families have people working in offices, so the plantations are there to provide for them. 

“A village mayor looks after plantations and pushes and motivates people to work on their lands. The  inspections are to make sure that the work is consistent.

“A lot of people sell their crops and get money from them to help out their families. We always try and make sure that there is no hunger or poverty within our village. Each family in our village is well off and they are not struggling. 

Faumuina also said that they also have inspections every month to maintain the neatness of the village.

“We have a special committee to organize the inspections and we also love doing it because it’s for a good purpose.” 

By Sarafina Sanerivi 07 November 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>