SAVING LIVES, AN INCLUSIVE CAMPAIGN

​Four weeks into the Saving Lives Campaign aim at improving awareness amongst our people of support services available at Samoa Victim Support Group, the highlights saw the campaign reaching our people residing overseas; as well as people with disabilities.
 
The magnitude of the help being sought ranges from counseling support, parental guidance, assistance with family dispute, child abuse, domestic violence, sexual abuse, abandoned children with disabilities, homeless and mental disabilities, attempted murder and suicidal victims of violence.

For 4 weeks from 20 September to 19 October 2019, SVSG’s database recorded 168 support responses for Help Line callers compared to 115 support provided for Walk-in clients.  This is a total of 283 people being helped within 4 weeks of the Campaign. 
 
With limited resources and personnel, SVSG is humbled by our people’s confidence to come forward and seek help.  A mothers cry for justice due to the brutal beating of her 16 year old son by the school principal; the request for food and water from a woman with mental disabilities; the desperate plea for help from a suicidal woman survivor of violence; the phone calls and emails late at nights from Samoans living abroad requesting help for their families in the villages; were some of the lives the Campaign has saved.
 
Having the means to access help at any time is the rationale behind the operation of the Help Line.  For some of the callers, being able to dial that number amidst any violent situations has given them hope.  And we could hear all the different type of emotions from the callers voice such as fear, anxiety, terror, depression, anger.  Through the Help Line, we have been able to address these emotions while talking the callers through their different situations.
 
SVSG is aware that we cannot save the world.  However, we are stronger in our belief that it is through smaller changes that multiple changes are born.  Together, you and I can become the change necessary to save lives in our community.  
 
Thank you to all the sponsors of the Campaign thus far, namely Bluesky, Digicel, Samoa Commercial Bank, Bank of the South Pacific, Moana Rentals, Pacific Ezy Money, Fexco Samoa, CCK Trading Limited, Blue Pacific Car Hire, Ford Hyundai Samoa, Federal Pacific Finance.
 
If you would like to be a part of the Saving Lives Campaign; as a spokesperson for the media, a volunteer driver for after hour cases or a sponsor for the roadside billboards, you are most welcome to join us.  Call the Help Line on 800-7874, message us on the SVSG Samoa Facebook page, email us on svsginsamoa@gmail.com or stop by our office next to the Police in Apia.
 
“Thank you so much Samoa for trusting us to be of service to you all.  As Family, SVSG is always here to support, to help and to care for you.”  Georgina Lui, Chair of the SVSG Board.