Epifania is a 22-year-old and joined the Special Olympics movement in 2010; she has been involved from a very young age. Epifania loves sports and enjoys the community aspect of Special Olympics. Epifania is looking forward to executing this project because in Samoa there are limited opportunities for young people with disabilities.

Jarred is a 22-year-old from the village of Asau located in Savaii Island, Samoa. Jarred’s experience with the Special Olympics movement spans over 10 years. Jarred loves sports and dreams of becoming a leader. He looks forward to helping to develop this project and continuing to work with Special Olympics in the future.
Epifania and Jarred are aware of a lack of opportunities for girls and women in Savaii Island, Samoa. Lots of women in this community are unemployed because of the low level of their education and lack of suitable employment opportunities for them. They hope their project will empower women in the community, provide them with an opportunity to become independent and develop skills to eventually generate their own income.
This project’s initiative is sewing and handicraft. Epifania and Jarred hope to teach women handicraft skills to allow them to eventually profit from their creations and gain financial independence. They will hold trainings and instruction at first on the basics of these crafts, and then later there will be collaborations with experts to show off more advanced skills.

Project Goals

This project’s aim is for girls and women in Savaii to gain a profitable skill set they can then share with other women in their community. Hopefully the women in the community will be able to sell what they create and develop some financial independence!