It all began in 1989 after attending the first SAASIA in Wellington. The main aim was to encourage having Aoga Amata.
From there, we had a vision to establish a Samoan preschool as we saw it as an essential service to maintain the language, culture, our values and inheritance.
The same year we started as a play group/centre. We used a room at the back of our old church hall to run our sessions 3 times a week, 3 hours a session. It was a voluntary sacrifice by some of our church mothers.
We had to meet three main criteria in order to get recognised and licensed. A building, the children and a qualified teacher.
With consultation and support from the MOE we worked hard towards our goal.
Luckily we had the church land big enough to build our centre on. In 1995 we applied and got money from MOE for a purpose-built centre.
Due to the invaluable sacrifice by some of the mothers/parents led by Fa'amavaega Saofa'i, I was able to do the teaching course during that time.
By 1997, we completed the building, we had more than 20 children and a qualified teacher.
In November 1997, the MOE finally granted our licence to operate. It was a mission accomplished thanks to God and the hard work and sacrifice of the church congregation.