On March 3, 2023 from 11:00am-1:00pm at Tanoa Hotel, Caritas Samoa is organizing a Project Completion Event for the Promoting Resilience through Essentials Pre-Positioned for Samoa (PREPS) project. The event will be an opportunity to celebrate project successes with partners, beneficiaries, and key stakeholders who share the common goal of building community resilience across Samoa. The keynote address will be delivered by U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires, Noriko Horiuchi.

Given its geographic location and physical environment, Samoa is highly vulnerable to natural hazards such as tropical cyclones, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes. As the effects of climate change continue to unfold, it is probable that negative impacts of natural disasters will intensify, and Samoa will have increased vulnerability to frequent and recurrent disasters. To address this problem, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Caritas Samoa implemented the PREPS project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). CRS and Caritas Samoa worked in collaboration with communities and local leadership with the goal that vulnerable populations in Samoa affected by disaster meet their immediate, essential needs, and live with dignity.

The PREPS project, which launched on September 7, 2020, aimed to strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels through the pre-positioning of emergency relief supplies at six locations in Samoa. This involved building three warehouses to store emergency relief supplies; relocating currently fully stocked containers; purchasing emergency relief non-food items (NFIs) to supply 990 households (over 6,930 people); and training warehouse managers, community volunteers, and local leadership to maintain and distribute supplies when needed. In total, the project benefits 10,688 direct beneficiaries.