House help needed for Pepe and his family

By Nefertiti Matatia 24 June 2018, 12:00AM

Pepe Fetu is a resilient man.

Despite the struggles with hardship and poverty, the unemployed father of two from Faleasi’u remains positive.

His biggest fear is not being able to provide for his children. In the short term, he admits that they need to fix their house. 

Living in a Samoan open house is challenging for him because there is only one side of the house with a tarpaulin. The other parts of his house remain exposed.

Which is why he needs help.

Speaking to the Village Voice team he says there is so much work that is needed to be done to their house.

“The house that we live in has many problems which only has one solution to it and that is to have the money to repair it, which is something that we don’t have.

“We need materials to rebuild the house properly so that everyone living in here would be safe.

“The iron roofing has rusted and every time it would rain it will be a living nightmare. Not only that the house would be all wet but most of our belongings would ruin.

“Even though it is one blanket or a pillow, we don’t have enough money to buy detergent for the washing and things like that,” said the 44-year-old.

He also mentioned the condition of the hassle of the lack of water.

“We don’t have a water tank or even a water supply in our home. Whenever we need water, we walk to our relative’s house to fetch our buckets of water.

“What makes our situation harder is that we do not have any large water gallons to store our water. These buckets that we have do not last us three days.

“We need water all the time for making food, washing the dishes and drinking. I just feel for my children because this is what we have to live through every day.”

His problems do not end there. They do’nt have a toilet so his family uses their relative’s bathroom.

“We cannot afford to make our own toilet instead we have to walk to our other family that is just right next to us to use their place.

“If you think about it, we would need to set up water in our home which would require money.”

Their only source of income is from their plantation which is never enough to support his eldest child who is in school and provide for his family on a daily basis.

“Being a farmer means that the land is our money but when the weather is not good then there is nothing that we could do to control the climate.

“We do not earn that much from the crops that we sell. It is never enough to make a proper home or build a toilet.

“Life is hard and costly.”

For anyone that is willing to help Mr. Pepe Fetu and his family contact 7292410.

By Nefertiti Matatia 24 June 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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