PRESS RELEASE : Women and youth in Asaga have learned new ideas through a sewing and elei training project, which benefitted low-income households in Asaga through the capacity development of women in skills for economic sustainability.
The village of Asaga celebrated the official closing on Monday 27th July, 2020 of the “Sewing and Elei Trainings for Women” project supported by the Government of Samoa through the Civil Society Support Program (CSSP) and Australian Government.
The closing event on Monday showcased the new uniform for the Asaga Primary school sewn by the women of Asaga as part of the project.
The project aimed to provide unemployed women and youth of Asaga with the opportunity to learn new and innovative ideas to build their skills to cope with unfavorable situations and expose them to new techniques to enhance their standard of living. In addition, this initiative aimed to increase sustainable livelihood opportunities for the Asaga community to help alleviate poverty and support economic success.
The Sewing and Elei Training project was the community approach to address the need to create sustainable initiatives that boost economic stability and provide an alternative instead of relying only on agricultural farming as the only means for income generation for households. The Asaga Women Committee identified vulnerable households from their community. As a result, most of the women who were engaged in the project were from vulnerable families who were experiencing financial distress and struggling to make ends meet. Some parents could not afford to send their children to school due to the cost of uniforms.
“The sewing and elei project has benefitted our village tremendously; the 30 participants at first, did not have prior knowledge in sewing or elei printing. They are unemployed and come from low-income families. Our village relies primarily on agricultural farming as our source of income and for daily consumption. We are grateful for this funding assistance which enabled the women of Asaga to acquire the skills to sew their own clothing and their children’s uniforms which claimed significant cost savings for the families. The initial accomplishment of this project was displayed during last year’s White Sunday when mothers sewed their children’s attires without buying expensive clothes from the stores or paying for a tailor to have them sewn. In addition, the project also provided others a supplementary income to support their families.” said Lualua Tautu (mayor of Asaga).
The Government of Australia committed SAT $32,000, in partnership with the Government of Samoa, through the CSSP under the Small Grants Component of the Samoa Women Shaping Development Programme (Gender Fund) to fund the Sewing and Elei Training project of the Asaga Women’s Committee.
The CSSP acknowledges with sincere gratitude the hard work and effort by the Village of Asaga through its Women’s Committee which culminated with the successful completion of this project. The CSSP also acknowledges the kind support by the Australian Government through its Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).