Vito is an 18-year-old who is from the village of Aleipata in Samoa. While his favorite sport with Special Olympics is bocce, he has played various sports over the past 8 years of his involvement with Special Olympics. Vito feels that sports are an integral part of a person’s development. He thinks all people should get to experience and the fun and comradery of playing alongside someone.

Savaliga is a 21-year-old from the village of Falealili in Samoa. Savaliga feels that there are very limited opportunities in her area and wants to find more ways to bring people together. She finds sports to be a fun outlet and has enjoyed meeting people through Special Olympics sports and playing with others in the community.
Due to a lack of resources and sufficient access to resources that are present in Samoa, a lot of people in Vito and Savaliga’s community are unemployed. These Youth Leaders feel that members of their athlete community could benefit from implementing a project and creating tangible products to hopefully generate an income.
Vito and Savaliga will engage members of their community in their project to print Elei materials and design lava-lava (Pacific Island skirts) to sell at a retail shop in the villages. In collaboration with experts in printing and skirt-making, they will conduct a training for the youth leaders and community members on entrepreneurship.
This project’s overarching goal is to establish a small, easily replicated project to earn a living for Special Olympics Samoa’s local youth leaders and athletes. This would in turn grant the community to grow the success of Special Olympics locally.