The governing bodies of major sporting codes in the country celebrated International Women’s Day (I.W.D.) at the Tuanaimato Multipurpose Gym on Monday.

To mark the global event, Samoa Cricket Association joined Samoa Rugby Union, Netball Samoa and Football Federation Samoa to jointly hold a sports expo that celebrated the success of women in sports while increasing visibility and calling out inequality.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day celebration was “choose to challenge” which resonated with a lot of the sporting administrators as the various sporting codes had their own challenges.

The gathering on Monday provided the various participants the opportunity to share their experiences as well as talk about their challenges while celebrating the achievements of women in sports.

The event coordinator of Monday’s program, Tofilau Avii Faalupega, said it is time to celebrate the inclusiveness of sport and its power to bond and unite the nation.

“Today we have celebrated the inclusiveness of sports to become stronger together with a strong nation behind us,” she said.

“The initiative provides a tremendous opportunity that enables different sport organisations in Samoa to work together to enjoy and experience a single spectacle in unity. 

“Teamwork is a major aspect that sports have been able to provide. 

“In order to be successful in a specific sport, we all have to work together with our teammates and be able to be successful with one another.”

According to Tofilau, their main goal is to celebrate women’s achievements and build strong relationships as well as providing capacity.

“The main goals are to celebrate the achievements of women in sports, build strong relationships between sports, and provide capacity that brings sports together to boost the nation’s morale,” she added. 

“Producing stronger relationships is scratching the surface of our role in the sport industry and we need to reaffirm our commitment to each other building strong athletes with a strong nation behind us, and by building strong relationships we need each other. 

“When sports develop a sense of family and community and a bunch of friends together that seem they can last for a lifetime, tragedies do arise and this is how we see how sports really establish a sense of family and relationships so close to one another.”

One of the challenges facing the sporting fraternity is their ability to unite under one roof, which Netball Samoa C.E.O. Rosemarie Lome said they’ve been able to achieve this time around.

“The challenge in court thought sport is to come under one roof, and just to celebrate every sport’s respective women athletes,” she said. 

“So we are very happy with the response today, we make a very good use of this multipurpose stadium.”

Using the sports platform to deliver key messages cannot be underestimated with Ms Lome pointing to a partnership with the Ministry of Health. 

“Sport is a very good field court to deliver a message and each of our sports we are always partnering up with the Ministry of Health because we are able to take it as part of our program, support our program, compliments of what we do on the field. 

“It’s really good, very encouraging to see all the sports especially badminton and table tennis which are becoming more visible and it's really nice to have them here and part of our sector.”

Ms Lome added that the sports sector in Samoa is growing and the quality of the sporting infrastructure in Samoa is a testament to that growth.

“The sport sector is growing and we have the best facilities here in the southern hemisphere after hosting the 2007, 2015 and 2019 international games so we are utilising the best facilities that we have.”

Badminton Samoa President Nynette Sass talked about the importance of sports to women in an interview with the Samoa Observer and how the different codes have been assisting the women.

“The coming together of all these sports today is to mark the International Women’s Day 2021,” she said.

“The other significant part about this is that the sports that are here are also held by lots of females and lots of women. 

“So one of the things that we also wanted to do in support of this initiative is to show that we can work together, and if we do this together and bring our sport together, that will help in providing a venue and a platform.”

Samoa currently has over 31 different sports that are being played on the island, who according to Ms Sass become independent entities to grow their own code.

However, the COVID-19 global pandemic has led to the closure of international borders and inability to travel, which she said opens up the opportunity for the local sporting codes to work together.

“If you do year in year out with the same sport it becomes boring and if you can go and try a hand with some other sports that make it fun, entertaining and excited about the sports.”

Doreen Solomona, a 17-year-old Year 13 student of Avele college, was one of the participants at the event and expressed her joy as she says women should be treated equally and have the same opportunity with men. 

“So this program if other women can see it on television and newspaper, it will encourage them to get up and work together with all the women through their values and responsibilities in life. 

“And the men should have a lot of respect for women in our country. Wishing all the females and women a happy International day.”