Let’s face it, sometimes things don’t go well for a lot of people, who make the wrong choices in life to see theirs go pear-shaped.

A lot of them turn to alcohol and drugs, as a way out of their personal challenges and gradually develop an addiction, most times at the expense of their families including children’s welfare.

Therefore, we were not surprised that the drug and rehabilitation programmes offered by the Salvation Army, since they opened their doors in August 2018, took off in Samoa.

In December 2019, over a year after opening in Samoa, 413 people passed through its treatment programmes. Four years after their opening a total of 1,500 cases have been brought to their attention since their opening to confirm the rising demand for their services in the country.

So it is good to see the Salvation Army thinking long-term with the opening of their new office on Saturday. An article (Salvation Army’s new property) in the 6 November 2022 edition of the Sunday Samoan reported that the opening of their headquarters in Samoa was attended by family, friends and colleagues.

Pastor Julie Turner of the Salvation Army said it was finally good to have a place they could call their own and it was a proud moment for their organisation. 

Husband and wife, Pastor Eric and Julie Turner are the regional leaders of the Salvation Army in Samoa and for them it was an emotional moment.

In his interview with the Samoa Observer, Pastor Eric said they have made plans for the land and will continue to develop this property gradually within the near future.

"We are extremely blessed, after five years of being in Samoa, five years of prayer and we have finally been able to purchase a lovely piece of land which we can call home for the Salvation Army Samoa," he said.

"It has been a wonderful morning of God's blessing and of celebration. We will work to develop it so that we can operate from this site. 

“We are currently at Moto’otua and we will be there until we move eventually."

Congratulations to the Salvation Army management on achieving that milestone on Saturday. We can only see the opening of the headquarters as a positive for the country, as it would mean more services to the people over the long-term.

But drug and rehabilitation programmes are not the only services that this non-government organisation provides. 

The non-government organisation is also beginning to have a big footprint in addressing violence against women and girls. Out of the 1,500 cases that were brought to its attention this year since opening four years ago, over half of them are violence-related.

The Salvation Army’s Practitioner Clinician, Sailivao Aukusotino Senio, told this newspaper at that time that based on his experience dealing with the cases he believes Samoans’ misinterpretation of what a pule or authority means is a major factor behind the violence in the country.

"Samoans have a distinctive word that defines consultation and it is ‘soalaupule’. Instead people want to be ‘fiapule’, which means that they want to be authoritative," he said.

"So in a family setting, we say that the man is the head of the family. By that a man would take it to mean that he is the boss, he uses that to control a woman.”

It is time to think outside the box in the search for long-term solutions to address violence against women and girls in Samoa, and looking at Sailivao’s analysis of violence and its link to culture, he could be on the right track.

On that note we take this opportunity to also acknowledge the work of all other non-government organisations in Samoa, who are working in similar spaces to tackle Samoa’s societal challenges.

It hasn’t been easy over the last 3 years with the Covid-19 pandemic testing their resilience and leading to the exhaustion of funding and resources. But most of them refused to throw in the towel, and using skeleton staff and meagre resources, continued to roll out programmes for the benefit of the community.

With only seven weeks left before we bring the curtain down on 2022, we also acknowledge those who work behind-the-scenes in anonymity, for the services they provide to their respective communities, and not expecting anything in return.