Latter-Day Saints Church bestows award on Caritas Samoa

award

Caritas Samoa’s Project Manager Fuatino Muliagatele-Ah Wai says it is a privilege to receive an Honour Award from the Apia Samoa Central Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS).

The award was one of a number made by the LDS  to organisations, church members and government ministries in recognition of community services they have provided.

“On behalf of the Caritas Samoa, we give our sincere and humble thanks to President Jason Joseph and the Apia Samoa Central Stake for this Special Award for Caritas Samoa,” said Ah Wai.

She said receiving the award provided an amazing opportunity to create more awareness and advocacy programmes not only for disaster but for health, education and youth.

“This will create a strong networking with our lead Government Ministries through our programmes,” Ah Wai said.

Caritas Samoa was founded in February 2008 and became a fully-fledged member of Caritas Internationalis in 2011.

The organisation has been working to strengthen the communities’ disaster risk awareness, with joint training being held with Red Cross across the country.

It has also worked with communities in urban Apia and in a coastal village to relocate them away from areas where there are regular flooding or erosion issues.

As part of their efforts to resolve the issues for people in these communities, they are raising awareness, helping people develop options and working out long-term plans for a sustainable way of life in their new homes.

Caritas Samoa works in close partnership with international relief organisations, as well as the Samoan government’s National Disaster Management Office to provide assistance and training where needed.

Apart from its work on emergency response, Caritas Samoa also assists low-income families by providing food and clothing, by promoting capacity building initiatives for women and helping with the improvement of rural waters supplies.

Caritas Samoa also takes part in peace and reconciliation at a grassroots level by improving relations between students in schools where there is unrest.

There are more than 200 volunteers who are registered to be part of Caritas Samoa.

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News category: Asia Pacific.

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