“Your job, first and foremost, is to help yourself. When you make the effort to help yourself, you can better help others too.”

So says Laumata Aso from the village of Vaitele-Uta. 

Laumata believes that we can’t truly help others or make them happy unless we help take care of ourselves and our own happiness too. 

“If you want to establish and do good things for others, you must first help yourself before you do so for other people,” she told the Village Voice.

“Whatever you do in life and whatever you want to achieve, the first thing you need to do is to make sure you are 100 percent okay. 

“To me as a mother, this is one of the important things in life. Because what’s the use of trying to make someone happy when you yourself are not happy?

“Not only that, but if you want to help someone else become a better person, you can never do it if you are also going through a lot of things. 

“I know no one is perfect, but if we keep improving ourselves and learn from the mistakes of yesterday, we can find true happiness.”

Laumata understands that in Samoa, family is very important for us. 

We make sacrifices just so our loved one can enjoy a good and happy life. 

“We are all different; we want different things in life and we go through different challenges. 

“We also depend on different things to make us happy. But for me, one thing is for sure, and that is our family will always be there for all of us. 

“For my family, happiness is the most important thing for us. Whatever we do, we always do it in a way so that we can all end up with big smiles on our faces. 

“Like what they say, it’s the simple things in life that makes us happy. That’s also the case for me and my family.

“We don’t compare our lives to others. We appreciate whatever God gives and provides for us each and every day. 

“Things are much better in this life if we accept whatever God blesses us with.”

Asked about how life is in Samoa for her and her family, she replied saying, “All is well for me and my family.

“Like I mentioned before, happiness is all that matters to me and my family.

“If you are happy, there will be no doubt that other people around you will be happy as well.

“If you want to help others, help yourself first before you do that. We all need help sometimes and we all want to rely on someone when we sail through rough seas.

“But my advice is, ask God to be that someone for you and your family. He can get us through the storms with smiles on our faces.

“We should keep on improving our lives so we can be blessings to other people. 

“That’s the message I am trying to teach my children.”