Hardship of a village life

By Deidre Fanene 26 August 2016, 12:00AM

Recently a report was launched that shows that there is hardship in Samoa and for one family at Siumu they are the living proof.

Sixty two year old mother and grandmother Faatolu Seigafo of Siumu told the Samoa Observer yesterday that life in the rural area is not as easy as the life in town.

“When we talk about poverty we refer to money because money is everything and so life is hard when it comes to money,” she said.

“With our family we have only one working person and that is my son who is employed at the Sinalei Resort.

“His pay helps us to pay for one of his brother’s children and then we have church commitment and as well as the village commitments.

“However, with the village commitment we can afford but as for church and school that is where we suffer.

“I have three grandchildren who are attending school at the moment and they all need money for registration and then, we have their lunch to worry about and then school activities that also requires us parents to fork out money for their tausala.

“It’s very hard because sometimes I would complain to the teachers that not all families are rich but they are demanding money for this and that but they don’t know how hard it is for other families to survive.”

Ms. Seigafo said that not only with school but also with the churches as well.

“I know that this problem doesn’t happen in just one village but it happens in all the villages and to everyone else.

“Sometime I think that we are more worried about how we are going to give to the church but at the end we suffer because we don’t know how we are going to feed our families.

“That is the problem that the government doesn’t know about the life here in the rural, commitment is everywhere and all those commitment it requires us to give money.”

Ask about what she thinks the government should do, Ms. Seigafo said they (government) should really come up with ways to help the villages in the rural areas.

“This is hardship here not in the town area,” she said.

“We should be able to be treated the same way as people in Apia are being treated but it seems like they (government) are more focusing on the development of Apia rather than focusing on us too.

“We need help in any way, we are not telling them to give us money for free we are basically asking them to provide more opportunities for our children to work so they can look after our family.

“That is what we are asking for is help give opportunities for the young ones because they are the ones who are looking after our family.

“We know that the cost of living is sky rocketing but that is how it is, but at least help the people of Samoa first before you consider helping others.”

By Deidre Fanene 26 August 2016, 12:00AM

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