THE SAMOA EDUCATION NETWORK (SEN) PROJECT

HOW DID IT GET STARTED? Towards the end of 2016 METI was approached by Mr Bernie Lovegrove from the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE), with whom METI has had a long professional relationship. In fact, since 2000, METI has been a participating organisation of ASPBAE. The General Program for Education…

UPDATE ON METI ACTIVITIES • 2017 has been ‘brutal’ year for METI. Money is the ‘breast milk’ of civil society organisations and that has been in short supply last year forcing METI to downgrade its operations to a bare minimum, except continuing its Samoa Sleep Clinic operations and even expanding its Healthy Living Project, as well as maintaining its participation in the UNDP-funded, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) managed ‘Economy –Wide Adaptation to Climate Change’ (EWACC) project involving 10 villages in which METI has spread its various programme activities which are detailed in its attached METI Profile. • METI’s promised participation in another UNDP-funded , MNRE managed project , on ‘Strengthening Multi-sectoral Management of Critical Landscapes’ (SMSMCL) took more than one year of bureaucratic delays before -just before Christmas- one of the three planned projects, the ‘Tropical Mushroom Research project’ received its promised funding and was started on 3 January 2018. In previous years METI had mastered the various mushroom growing techniques to raise Pleurotus mushrooms. The purpose of this research project is to identify the ideal combination of critical factors (temperature, humidity and lighting) to ensure a constant production flow that can be transferred to the village level, following the Thai production model. • A call for Proposals by government is now open and one is hopeful that in the weeks to come the other 2 projects in this SMSMCL project that METI is proposing will get their necessary funding to commence  a 12-month integrated project in 10 villages leading to knowledgeable, peaceful, healthy and resilient communities able to decide on self-reliant actions required to face future challenges, be they climate related, or of a socio-economic nature.  a 6-months research project to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to pinpoint how much increased crop production can be achieved by the use of the organic biofertilser copiously available from the Biogas digester operation at METI’s Vailele Farm. The results expected of this project could well lead to Biodigester technology being introduced at the village level, We mentioned earlier that in spite of all the financial restraints METI had to cope with last year, it made remarkable progress in its Healthy Living project, which it had been conducting in parallel with its Samoa Sleep Clinic operation, where persons with Sleep Apnea are diagnosed and treated. As can be imagined, the obese clientele of the Sleep Clinic provides a perfect audience for the message of hope that the Healthy Living Clinic offers with its promise to reverse obesity and the various non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease, provided that those willing to take on the challenge of changing their life style strictly adhere to the rules of the whole food, plant based (WFPB) nutrition programme. A programmatic breakthrough occurred in mid-2017, when upon the invitation of the General Manager of the National Health Service (NHS), METI moved its Medical clinics to the TTM hospital premises at Motootua. In this way, an increasing number of patients are being seen, being referred from the hospital clinics for ‘dietary advice’. In addition, thanks to Canada Fund for Local initiatives support, METI was able to establish a kitchen facility in its Motootua Clinic. In this way, it was possible to supplement the 2-hour Health Seminar (that is offered to interested obese individuals or NCD sufferers) with a Cooking demonstration of the WFPB cuisine (adapted to the taste and the means of the local population). This development, since November 2017 has made it easier for individuals to stick to the WFPB diet as they are taught how to ‘create’ with their preferred vegetables, fruits and legumes tasty, wholesome and varied dishes. A further communications breakthrough occurred recently: starting in November 2017, METI was invited by the management of the leading Samoan newspaper, the Samoa Observer, to write a weekly Health column, which –based on feedback-, is being well received by the Public. These writings are presented in a separate section of this Website. Finally, the leading Samoan TV station, TV One, has announced plans to start soon a weekly Healthy Living coverage, focusing on METI’s efforts to raise awareness among the Public and spread the message that Diabetes and Heart disease are not incurable diseases but can be reversed even at the later stages by following strictly the whole foods, plant based nutrition.

METI’S EU funded v LST PROJECT

In September 2019 the Civil Society Support Programme (CSSP) sent out a call for proposals focusing on Gender equity. METI submitted its proposal against the background of the findings of the 2018 Ombudsman’s Report on Family Violence and METI’s experience with providing Life Skills Training (LST) to community groups. METI was successful in attracting funding…

LIFE SKILLS TRAINING – AS THE ANTIDOTE TO FAMILY AND COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

Samoa is in the grips of a silent epidemic of NCD as we have explained in another chapter of this website. But there is another epidemic that is ravaging the lives of many Samoans. It is the epidemic of Family Violence. We will not present statistics –not only because they are grim but also because…

HEALTHY LIVING CLINIC – THE FIGHT AGAINST NCD

HEALTHY LIVING CLINIC – THE FIGHT AGAINST NCD In 2012, the Executive Director, Dr Walter Vermeulen, watched the feature film Forks over Knives. The film was an ‘eye-opener’ and allowed him to get acquainted with the pioneering work of Drs Dean Ornish, Caldwell Esselstyn, John McDougall, Neal Barnard and others of applying the Whole Foods,…

SAMOA SLEEP CLINIC

SAMOA SLEEP CLINIC The history of the Samoa Sleep Clinic (SSC) goes back to 1986, when the Minister of Health and his Director General of Health, Dr Vermeulen, on the way to a WHO meeting paused in Sydney and visited the ‘Sleep laboratory’ at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where Dr Colin Sullivan, then a…

Testimony by Liva Iulio

Talofa Samoa! I see them all the time when I go for my daily brisk walk along the Seawall behind the Government Building near the Apia Harbour: heavy-set people straining to lose weight by exercising in all kind of ways. Many of them eventually come to METI’s weekly Health Seminars complaining that in spite of…

Testimony by Christina Robert

Name: Christina Robert Village: Faleasi’u Tauoo Age: 64   My name is Christina Robert from Tauoo Faleasi’u. I am a widow of 64 years old. I was Hypertensive for 11 years and started taking pills from that time. In 2010 I developed Heart Failure and needed additional drugs. Starting from that time until last year…

WFPB) diet that METI is promoting can help reverse heart disease?

Talofa Samoa! Someone asked me the other day whether the whole food, plant based (WFPB) diet that METI is promoting can help reverse heart disease. The answer is a loud YES. The simple message METI has for patients with heart disease is: ‘Get on the WFPB diet!’ To emphasize this point I will relate to…

How People Adopt WFPB

Talofa Samoa! We are frequently asked how difficult it is for people to adopt the whole foods, plant based nutrition program (or WFPB diet). The simple answer is that it is not easy…There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the majority of Samoans are used to eating the high fat, Western diet, based on animal…