The Fa'asaleleaga No. 4 District Council (Fono Fa'avae) has become one of the first in the country to fully utilise its SAT$1 million District Development Project grant.

The Chief Executive Officer of the district office, Va'afusuaga Taialofa Toala, confirmed when contacted by the Samoa Observer that they've submitted their financial and audited reports for the $1 million that they've used to fund various projects implemented over the last two years. 

He said the implementation of the district's various projects, which came under the District Development Plan, has been running smoothly since the first day.  

"We truly believe that the well-being of families, communities and nations is largely dependent on its leaders," Va'afusuaga said in an interview. "We express our sincere gratitude to the government of Samoa for initiating such an important project to develop our villages and districts."

Describing the district's various projects as being community-oriented, due to all stakeholders being given the opportunity to have a voice prior to the start of implementation, he said everyone is given the chance to take ownership and leadership of the development.

"We understand that a lot has been said about this project, for us at Fa'asaleleaga No. 4, we believe that the people at the top can have an impact on how things work. 

"That's why we have the elders from each of the villages within our constituency as part of our district council. These are the matai making decisions and representing their families. 

"They understand the needs and wants of the people and individual families and they voice it and that's where the money goes. 

"I think for the first time, these families can actually benefit from the different development and projects implemented by the government directly."

Recalling the district's track record, in terms of project implementation and being more people-focused, Va'afusuaga said there were projects in the past that were not community-focused.

"Don't get me wrong, there have been a lot of projects in the previous years, but nothing like this project where our local community has been given the authority to decide and initiate projects to develop and improve their livelihoods," he said. 

"They now know that their voices are heard, their opinions matter and that they are responsible for making decisions to benefit everyone. That, in my opinion, is the beauty of this project and we have realised that."

Va'afusuaga then briefly described some of the priority areas that the district focused on when utilising its first $1 million grant. These focus areas have included education, health, infrastructure and tourism. 

"Education has been a priority for us and a lot of plans we initiated aimed at improving education within the constituency," he added. "We allocated funds to improve learning environments for all the schools within the constituency starting from pre-schools all the way up to colleges. 

"These included better facilities, improving the conditions of the roads to the different schools, and purchasing sports equipment and stationaries for schools. 

"We also started hiring mothers from within the constituency to do reading and assist the teachers within the different primary schools. We understand that there are not enough teachers to carry the load, so the extra hands would be a great help for them hence why we opted to start having reading moms."

According to Va'afusuaga, the "reading moms" are women in the constituency who have been unemployed but come from good educational backgrounds. The district office has also hired staff to look after the school bathroom facilities used by the students. 

"We also started hiring people to look after the bathrooms and facilities used by our students to make sure that they enjoy going to school and that the facilities are always clean for them to use. Health and education go hand in hand."

The focus of the Fa'asaleleaga No. 4 on children's education, has also led to families submitting requests for the district council to pay tuition fees, said Va'afusuaga. He said for students who are in university, there was a proposal for the district council to pay 20 per cent of the fees, for all those who attend the National University of Samoa.

"So we discussed it with our Chairman who is also the M.P. Tea Peato and he gave us the authority to use money from the grant to pay for full tuition fees for all the university students," he said. "However, we have discussed that we will be setting some guidelines on how that will work going forward. 

"There might be some new criteria on how students can be eligible probably based on their results so we know that they are using the money wisely and are taking their studies seriously."

For tourism, the constituency allocated funds to build bus shelters across the constituency and set up two beach public toilets for tourists and visiting people within the constituency. They have also encouraged the beautification of villages across the constituency. 

As for health intervention programs, the district council has encouraged and supported daily exercise and Zumba programs throughout the constituency. The district council has also improved the condition of access roads and provided farming equipment for all the farmers within the constituency.