In Samoa telecommunications company Digicel and Don Bosco Technical College are celebrating 7 years of partnership with the renewal of the sponsorship for the highly successful fautasi Digicel Segavao.
Digicel has given Don Bosco $ST35,000 to help with their youth development efforts.
The fautasi is a long boat used for racing in Samoa and American Samoa.
The boat is 89 feet long and has 47 rowers and a helmsman.
Digicel’s head of corporate affairs, Leaupepe Talai Lene, praised the school’s Principal, Fr. Chris Ford and Digicel Segavao’s Skipper, Vaimasenu’u Zita Martel, for continuing the unique programme for the young men of the Technical College.
Ford says the financial support they receive enables the school to facilitate a proper training camp for the young men of the team for the race preparations.
He reiterated that the partnership with the telecommunications company was one that they treasured.
Vaimasenu’u Zita Martel was the first lady skipper in what was traditionally a man’s sport.
In 2010 she said “I had to prove myself and my methods to a skeptical audience.”
“In 2006, we were given the opportunity not just to race for our country but to show that there is room for a woman in this sport.”
“To the consternation of our opponents in American Samoa, Digicel Segavao II won the American Samoa Flag Day Fautasi Race in 2006 – all based on the mantra ‘One Beat.'”
She said she took on the task of skippering at Don Bosco on the condition that each year, she could train afresh a new crew selected from Technical Centre.
It is a challenge that she says is posed every year with the enlisting of newbies – the year one students who’ve never raced before.
The fautasi giants will again be competing in this year’s major celebrations during the Independence Day races and the Teuila Festival Fautasi Races that will coincide with the September S.I.D.S. Conference.
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