Samoa Victim Support

Victim Support

Most of us Peace Corps Volunteers are working in the schools in rural villages throughout the two main islands of Samoa.  There are 3 volunteers that have extended than are doing other jobs as well.  I would like to share with you about one of them and their job.

One volunteer is working for Samoa Victim Support, an organization I knew little about before he started working there.  When he shared with me all that they do, I couldn’t help but be impressed.

Samoa Victim Support is an organization that reaches out to so many people.  They reach out to those effected by domestic violence, and best of all they touch the lives of neglected children.  Children of abusive families are taken away by them, to be put in a more neutering environment.   Since education is compulsory at the primary level, when a child is caught selling things in town instead of going to school, they are brought in to Samoa Victim Support.

Recently, with so many children living with this organization, they started a school.  They are not an official school funded by the Ministry of Education, and do not have the funds to support the salary of a teacher for this multilevel class. School still goes on, with the workers there assisting as teaching, as well as other volunteers from the community.  Miss Samoa often comes to teach, along with local business owners, and several other volunteers in the community. 

They do so much for these children, that it is hard to put into words.  (Especially since I am not the expert.)

The most amazing thing about them, is that they do it because they care about others.  That’s it.  They are not funded by the government, and their only source of funding is through donations and fundraising.  There are only two people on staff who are paid, the rest just volunteer for the love of the children.  Many of them are evening working full time as volunteers, an impressive feat, when you live in an expensive city like Apia.

Samoan Victims Support does so much for the community, and each time I hear this volunteer talk about his work with passion, I feel privileged to just know him, since I know he truly is making a big difference in the lives of many. 

If you would like to learn more about them,

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samoa-Victim-Support-Group-SVSG/363269208292