Non-profit Brown Girl Woke (B.G.W.) has teamed up with disability advocacy organisation Nuanua O Le Alofa (N.O.L.A.) and reached out to support the Home of the Elderly at Mapuifagalele.

B.G.W. founder and President, Maluseu Doris Tulifau, said they combined their donations to hand over to the aged care facility, after they were given a list of what the facility urgently needed.

"Some of the donations that we have today is from the N.O.L.A organisation, and the masks which were given to us by Rimani Samoa are also part of our donation today. The sisters gave us a list of what they needed down at the place, we donated what we have collected today to them," she said. 

"The N.O.L.A. were excited because they shared the same information for people to help them. We gave them the list that we got from the sisters and they bought what they could and we bought the rest.”

The B.G.W. donation to Mapuifagalele consisted of five boxes of chicken, two sacks of 40 pounds rice, four boxes of tinned fish, two boxes of tuna, one box of corned beef, four five-pound bags of sugar, six boxes of bowl noodles and 10 bags of mixed vegetables. While N.O.L.A. gave two boxes of chicken, two sacks of rice and two boxes of tinned fish.

Maluseu said her organisation is also working to assist more than 200 families who have sought their assistance, either in finance or grocery supplies.

"All together, if we add the elders and non-governmental organisations, there are almost 300 families that have asked for our help. And we are doing our very best to make sure we can help them in every way possible," she added.

The 200-plus families include five families from the big island of Savaii. According to Maluseu, her work in the community has enabled her to realise that there are local alternatives, for some of the items that have been requested.

"For my organisation and what I think about the poverty in Samoa, I think with this lockdown it makes us realize that if the world will not come in and help us, we will be okay because of resources on our land," she said.

"I've been here long enough to know that we need to rely more on our local resources. As I go to rural areas they are fishing, drinking coconuts and working more on their plantation. I get a lot of messages for diapers (adults and babies). However, we can make diapers out of material and that's better for our environment.”