Great leaders, great village

By Vatapuia Maiava 12 September 2016, 12:00AM

A body is only as good as its head.

This much can be said for the Mulifanua village where their leaders put their main priority on the welfare of their people.

The village’s women’s committee tapped into their savings earlier this month to provide 41 water tanks to combat the ongoing water problems the villagers faced.

And for village elder, Moananu Fano Paniani, aged 79, this is why their village is so blessed.

“In our village, there is a lot of peace and blessings,” he told the Village Voice.

“The village stands strong together, we are one. We look at issues within Mulifanua then the leaders of the village leads programmes to combat them.

“We don’t have major problems here because of the way we deal with the issues. We attack the problems as soon as they arise.

“We are just blessed in this village.”

According to Moananu, the water tank project has brought much joy to everyone in the village.

“The woman’s committee has helped us a lot by providing these water tanks for the village,” he said.

“Now that my family has our very own water tank, it has brought us a lot of joy. This project has brought everyone in the village lots of joy.

“They use their own savings to bless us all with this. They bought over 40 tanks and they will continue to look after the rest of the families who didn’t receive anything; especially those families who have no water.”

But nothing touched the heart of Moananu as much as the committee’s priorities.

“The one that touched me most is that they put their elderly first,” he said.

“I am one of the elders of the village and they brought me one water tank which is not just a blessing to me, it’s a blessing for my entire family.”

According to Moananu, there can’t be poverty in Samoa if we can get everything freely.

“In Samoa we don’t need any money at all,” he said.

“The reason I say we don’t need money is because we can get so much from our land, we can eat for free, live freely and stay blessed.

“Life is easy here in Samoa, we can get breadfruit, taro, bananas and many more without paying for it. We can even live on what we get from the sea.”

But there is still a need for money.

“Whatever money we get in our family from work, if it’s not enough then we ask family overseas,” Moananu said.

“I ask my children overseas if they can help out with what we need money. We need money for village and church obligations as well as cultural activities (fa’alavelave). Those are the only times we need money from overseas.

“Life is also very expensive with what needs to be done but in terms of food, we can get everything for free.”

By Vatapuia Maiava 12 September 2016, 12:00AM

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