The Festive Season is over and with schools starting again soon, many parents are already worrying about how they will pay fees and buy stationeries and school uniforms.

Lusia Iosefo from Manono-uta is among many of them.

Today, she is seeking financial assistance to help her children at the beginning of the new academic year.

 She is desperate because her husband is the only one who works and his earnings are not always enough.

Mrs. Iosefo says whenever there is not enough money for her children’s education, they would loan from N.P.F. or her husband’s office.

“We loan because we do not know where else to run to for help,” she sai.

“I am unemployed and it is only my husband who works. Every time when he gets paid, it will be deducted to his loans and by the time we get the money, it does not reach a $100,” the 29-year-old told the Village Voice team yesterday.

With the expensive cost of living in Samoa these days, Mrs. Iosefo is left to struggle with trying to provide for her four children’s education.

She adds for four years they have had to live without a steady supply of water.

They don’t have a water tank.

She says they have tried contacting Red Cross for assistance, but to this day, their request has been unsuccessful.  

Her eldest is a 10-year-old boy. She says her children would walk to their neighbours to collect water.

“We really need water so that my kids would not have to walk in the hot sun to get buckets of water. I cannot do it because I have my seven-month-year-old boy who I have to attend to as well.”

Mrs. Iosefo says she has so many unfulfilled wishes, but only hopes that her dream for her children will one day come true.