14 January 2011

Fasitootai, Samoa: On 4 December 2010, in marking the International Volunteer Day (IVD), over 100 local and international volunteers joined hands in cleaning up and planting mangroves in Fasitootai, northwest of Samoa’s Upolu Island.

The event was organized by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme in cooperation with Fasitootai village, the Government of Samoa, other United Nations agencies and various local and international volunteer-involving organizations including Samoa Umbrella for Non-Governmental Organizations (SUNGO), Samoa Red Cross Society, Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID) and US Peace Corps.

The yearly IVD provides an opportunity for organizations and individual volunteers to celebrate their invaluable contributions to communities worldwide. This year the celebration focused on the theme Volunteering for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are a set of objectives that include halving poverty and ensuring environment sustainability by 2015.

“Through volunteering, people provide a much needed vehicle for improving the lives of their fellow citizens, especially those vulnerable and marginalized groups,” said Nileema Noble, United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in her opening remarks of the event.

Echoing this, Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni Retzlaff emphasized the important role volunteers play in helping Samoa attain its 2015 MDG targets. He said, “We have to build on our strong traditions, the faa Samoa, which emphasizes social cohesiveness and reciprocity. But more importantly, we need to encourage more Samoans, women and men, young and old, to volunteer outside of their family obligations.”

Building on the theme of volunteering for the MDGs, this year’s celebration supported the Community-Based Adaptation Programme (CBA), a five-year UNDP global initiative funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) within the Small Grants Programme (SGP) delivery mechanism. The Pacific is one of the most vulnerable regions to the adverse impacts of climate change. Thus, achieving the MDGs is made more challenging.

“Fasitootai is facing severe coastal erosion from both local and climate change induced stresses. The project aims to build coastal resilience in the face of climate change by planting mangroves. This not only protects the coastline but is also a key ecosystem which the village relies upon for subsistence fishing and livelihoods,” said Kevin Petrini, CBA Regional Programme Coordinator. “We are working closely with Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Fasitootai community. The target is to plant 5,000 square metres of eroded area with mangroves, renovate village water resources and establish mangrove and coral reef protection areas”, Kevin added.

The coastal clean-up and mangrove planting event not only brought together community members from the village, but also voluntary groups from the capital, Apia, and the neighbouring villages. “We have done a similar clean-up in our village and now we want to help our neighbours”, said the Vaisilika (Silk Water) group from Faleasiu village.

The event also gathered foreign volunteers from Australia, China, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and the USA. "We are so moved by the spirit of volunteerism. Today’s activity is a real boost to our project. We will take ownership from now on and continue to mobilise women and men, old and young of our village to build a more sustainable Fasitootai," said Rev Elder Lale Ieremia, Fasitootai’s CBA village committee member.

In less than two hours, thanks to the tireless and coordinated efforts, the volunteers cleared about 10,000 sq meters of Fasitootai’s coastline from seaweed and debris and planted 250 mangrove seedlings.