EMPOWERMENT CHANGES MINDSET

​The livelihood training session for the Nofotane project at the Vaimauga East constituency recorded the most eldest participation so far.  Fofoga Tuifau of Faatoia registered herself as between the 81 – 90 age group.  Four other participants were elderly members of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa at Faatoia, the centre for the training.
 
Hosted by Reverend Paulo Koria who is also one of the SVSG village representatives for Faatoia, nofotane women from Vaiala, Maagiagi, Faleapuna and Faatoia made up the participants to this 31st training session for the project.
 
And the elderly nofotane women challenged the younger ones to change their way of thinking.  According to Fofoga Tuifau “you should be grateful of the opportunity that you now have to be empowered in your younger days, unlike us, we never had this chance.”
 
The session was therefore marked by an atmosphere of appreciation, as the elderly nofotane women learned a skill or two.  It was not so much for themselves, but the empowerment is for them to teach their children.  It is all about changing mindsets, as we continued to see behavioural changes amongst the nofotane women from being empowered.
 
So come the 19th and the 20th of July in front of the Government building, the empowered nofotane women will showcase some of their products during the Nofotane Market Days to celebrate the official closing of the project.
 
“A nofotane woman will always be a nofotane; the project is not attempting to change this cultural aspect of the FaaSamoa.  The project merely aims to improve the economic empowerment of women and to increase their participation in domestic and community matters, as these are some of the most important contributing factors to achieving gender equality.”  Siliniu Lina Chang, SVSG President