The Methodist Church has handed over the keys to the Faleula Methodist Compound to the Chairman of the Pacific Games Organising Committee, Loau Keneti Sio.

The hand over at Faleula on Monday means the facility is ready to be used to host over 4,000 athletes and officials over the two-week Pacific Games in July.

They will be accommodated using a combination of 63 houses and four school compounds (George Brown Pre-school and Primary School, Wesley College and Laumua o Punaoa Technical Centre).  

The Games Village will be open from the 4th to the 22nd of July, to host teams over the entire Games period from the 7th to the 20th.

Each country will be allocated a house that can serve as a central hub for their delegation. 

In addition to housing athletes, the Games Village will also include spaces allocated for team management, medical and physiotherapy needs, Polyclinic, Police Headquarters, Dining Hall, Banking, Money Exchange, Digicel Network, Tourism Information, Merchandise, Sports Training, Laundry Services, and Transport.

Due to the size of the compound, there will be an internal shuttle for athletes and team officials to access the various areas within the Games Village.

President of the Methodist Church, Reverend Apineru Lafai, said it wasn’t easy to get the Faleula Compound ready.

“Thanks to the Piula Theological College, the teachers and students for their help, this work was done on a volunteer basis," he said.

“But the important thing is this place is suitable for this event.“

He said the Church met with the Games Organising Committee on Friday, and they were satisfied with the compound.

“They were worried about how we were going to host this number of guests, but the Methodist compound is suitable for hosting this amount of people.”

He said the Church has received $2.35 million for the purchase of beds and housewares for the Athletes Village and $1.17 million for breakfasts for the athletes and team officials.

Chairman Loau thanked the Methodist Church for their contribution.

“The truth is we searched the sea and the forest for a place for our guests to stay, and now the Methodist church has answered us, showing their support for our country.

“In 2007 [for the previous Samoa-hosted Pacific Games] our Government spent lots of money to build a place for the athletes of different countries to stay, now it is different because the Methodist church has lent a hand and given the Government help in a short amount of time.“