The L.D.S. Charity of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints presented some computers to the Samoa Social welfare Fesoasoani Trust last week.

According to Elder Clifford Vellinga the cost of the computer project is approximately $25,000.

“We hope that we have made it possible for them to be able to have a much more effective way of teaching the people that they work with who need the help so that they can become better people,” he said.

“We think it’s important that people have the ability to return to the community and do the things that lift up their community and also themselves. We want them to  be confident in their abilities and if we can assist in any way for them to be able to do that, we are just more than happy.

“The purpose of the L.D.S. Charity is to bless the lives of the people and we want to bless everybody as much as we can.

“We are interested in doing all the things that we can so that the people of Samoa will be able to have less stress but more happiness and that’s what we aremostly interested in.”

Elder Vellinga also spoke about the criteria that are required if people want them to help.

“The criteria is that we look at the requests that we get. They have to be something that affects more than just a few people and it has to be something that is not directly related to our church,” he told the media.

“L.D.S. Charity does not do projects for our members, but we do projects for people who are in the community and some of the things we do is provide water tanks, help build bathrooms and schools and many times we provide desks, chairs and books for schools.

“All the people who have requests have to do, is to have a good thing to come and tell us about. If we can help we’ll say yes but if we can’t, then sometimes we have to say no because some things aren’t really appropriate. But we try to help in any way we can.”

Chief Executive Officer Leaula Theresa Asiata acknowledged with gratitude the support from the Church and its Elders.

“It’s generosity like this that helps organizations like ours continue to do the work we do,” she said.

“Without your support, these projects would not be possible today.

“These computers will help with the programmes that we will be conducting for the young offenders.

“It will also assist with our line of work and that is to nurture the lives of the offenders to keep them from breaking the law and to decrease the number of people entering Tafaigata Prison.”