Young man makes sacrifice for his mother, family

By Nefertiti Matatia 20 February 2018, 12:00AM

The bond between a mother and a son is unbreakable.

Twenty-year-old Harry Ah-Sui knows this because he would do anything for his mother.

He sacrificed his education to help his unemployed mother.

“I love my mother and that is the reason I am back to looking after the cattle farm and working the land. She has nobody to help her with the chores that she needs to carry out,” he said.

“She stays home; she looks after my little siblings and takes them to school. There are four of them who are still in school, two are in college and the other two in primary level.”

He has eleven siblings and the only person who works is his father who lives in American Samoa because of work commitments. His father works as a mechanic.

“Some of my siblings have moved overseas while there are only five of us here, including my older sister and her husband who lives with us,” he said.

The Village Voice team found Harry at Fusi Safata. He had just finished feeding his cattle and was heading home to weed the grass at his plantation.

“We have sevens cows but they belong to my grandfather and all I am doing is looking after them. We do not sell them.”

Mr. Ah-Sui believes life is hard in Samoa today, with jobs becoming scarce and prices of commodities increasingly become expensive. 

He says this is another reason he dropped out of school in 2015 when he was in Year 12 to help his mother.

“I want a job so I will be able to help my mother and I hope there is a solution whereby the prices of goods can be decreased because families like us cannot cope with such a cost, because there are so many children in my family and there is not enough money to support the rest.”

He explains that he is waiting on his father to help him secure a job in American Samoa. 

Tropical Cyclone Gita added another burden on his shoulders, ravaging their main source of nutrition - plantation.

“Everything works in our house, including water and electricity supply, it is just that TC Gita has ruined so much of our plantation and our taro, breadfruit and bananas have become a waste.”

He says he can only dream of helping his family with daily financial constraints.

By Nefertiti Matatia 20 February 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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