THE VALUE OF BEING EMPOWERED

​The village leaders of Lufilufi are amongst the majority of supporters from the village communities towards the economic empowerment of nofotane women, as the 23rd session of livelihood training reached the Anoamaa East constituency.  This was evidence not only by their presence throughout training session, but also through the village leaders who registered to become SVSG village representatives.
 
The commitment from the village leaders of Lufilufi inspired the 100 nofotane women who attended the livelihood training to learn, to be empowered and to value their purpose.
 
From trash such as coffee mix sachets and packet of twisties, they mastered the art of creating colorful handbags. 
 
These new creations are becoming a fashion, and have been picked up by local designers to compliment their fashion line wear.

We have the colorful ribbons woven into a lei for men and women, for any occasion.  The talents, the enthusiastic and the commitment showed by the nofotane women of Lufulufi to look at their value, their strength and their purpose as, were rewards on their own.
 
Then we have Niuali Tupai, an unemployed nofotane woman that learned commercial cooking from the livelihood training.
 
Today, Niuali is a self-employed nofotane woman, earning $100 a day, from selling pork buns at the school canteen, at the bingo games, at village meetings etc.  When we visited Niuali, she proudly showed us her products with a confident smile of an empowered woman.
 
According to Niuali, the livelihood training, the self-esteem module and the support from village leaders, enabled her to realize how valuable she is.  “I am a valuable woman.  My strength is in my hands.  As a nofotane, I have a unique purpose in my family.”  It is success stories such as that shared by Niuali Tupai of Lufilufi that highlight the achievement of the project goal in which SVSG and the UN Women FGE have anticipated for the Nofotane Project.
 
“Thank you so much to the village leaders of Lufilufi for supporting the economic empowerment of nofotane women.  We look forward to seeing more families from the village benefiting from the self-employed nofotane women.  Because at the end of the day, a nofotane woman will always be a nofotane; the project is not attempting to change this cultural aspect of the FaaSamoa, but to see an increased in the women’s participation in domestic and community matters.”  Siliniu Lina Chang, SVSG President.