As Samoa is a few months away from hosting 56 countries for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (C.H.O.G.M.), youths and children in the rural villages in Falealili have started their campaign with the goal of fighting climate and environmental crisis.

Held in Falealili, youths from the district gathered early morning on Saturday to collect debris, especially plastics from the coastal areas in their community to fight the environmental crisis impacting their livelihood.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Jimmy Leausa vice president of the Salani Bright Horizons Society, a group of youth who advocate for climate actions and environmental solutions said the coastal cleanup campaign was successful and they managed to collect much plastic from their community.

"Our NGO at Salani Falealili today, we had our coastal clean up at Salani, Falesatele and Utulaelae beaches so we gathered together, an opportunity for the kids especially for the youth of the villages to learn how plastics can affect the ocean and cause damages," he said.

"It's also an opportunity for us to advocate and create awareness in the villages. We collected a lot of plastic today and we were so excited because that is something we really push.

"We're trying our very best to seek funding and support from the government and international agencies but we're so grateful for the help of other companies who made our activities push through today."

He also stressed that part of the campaign is to clean Samoa and spread awareness to their communities before the C.H.O.G.M guests are hosted in the country.

"Especially that we're heading towards the Commonwealth Heads of the Government meeting that will be done in Samoa that's why we're looking at," he said.

"We want to clean our beaches, do something better and we want to be part of the solution, especially since this is a global problem in our country and we are at the forefront of the climate crisis.

"So we're trying our best as youths from the rural areas, we're focusing on collecting the plastics from the rural areas and we're grateful for the partnership that we have with Samoa Tokelau Association of Recyclers (S.T.A.R.) and that's basically what we did today."

This is not the first time the society has carried out this initiative and activity as it is part of their annual schedule. They also did this previously two months ago, a cleanup as well from other areas of Falealili where they are from.

"And we're trying to advocate to be part of the solution to a global problem," he added.

Mr. Leausa thanked Salani Resort, BSP, Ah Liki Wholesale, MCIT, those are the ones who contributed to their activities today which made it possible.