After much planning and preparations Conservation International (CI) Samoa and its partners have embarked on their journey to deliver their environmental education module to 10-12 years old students in coastal communities of Samoa. So far, the campaign has generated much positive feedback and interest from students, parents, teachers and community leaders. At the same it has generated a family dynamic within the Guardians campaign team consisting of representatives of CI’s partners from government officials, local organizations to volunteers.

CI Samoa conducted a week-long training for the educators delivering the educational module of the Guardians campaign on the 9th-13th July. The objective was to have the educators familiarize with the education modules developed through practicing it amongst themselves and constructively critiquing each other on ways to improve before the actual campaign implementation. At the same time, the campaign Standard Operational Procedure and tentative schedule was further discussed and finalized.

The Guardians campaign was launched the following week by Samoa’s Prime Minister, Hon. Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi in the presence of CI’s partners and supporters. The Gaualofa, Samoa’s traditional canoe transformed into a floating classroom then set sail for its first site Aleipata district. On arrival to Aleipata district the Guardians campaign kicked off on the 24th- 3rd August. Eight (8) primary schools attended with students from grade 7 and 8 reaching over 270 students. You can read more of its success on http://www.samoaobserver.ws/en/05_08_2018/local/35663/Grooming-young-environmental-guardians-at-Aleipata.htm

With the completion of the first campaign site, CI and its partners started prepping for its second site Aiga I le Tai district in September. The preparations started with conducting the social perception survey on the 3rd-5th September. This was in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) and National University of Samoa (NUS). The objective of the survey was to document the communities’ views and understanding on their environment. The survey sampled 30% of households within each community in Aiga I le Tai district, giving a total of 175 surveyed households. Data was collected on electronic survey form developed by CI for ease of collection and data analysis. The results (http://www.samoaobserver.ws/en/24_09_2018/local/37055/Survey-finds-three-quarters-of-villagers-in-fishing-district-believe-the-environment-has-degraded.htm) from the survey would help guide the development of the environmental education module and implementation of the campaign at Aiga I le Tai district.

The Guardians campaign is a multi-partner initiative and it pose some challenges in:

• Setting up meeting dates that all partners are available

• Pro-long-time frame in finalizing campaign documents due to delay in feedbacks and confirmation from partners

• Coordinating the guardians campaign team of representatives who have different level of backgrounds and set of skills

Given that the campaign’s target group are students it was also a challenge setting up the initiative alongside School event calendar.

The next upcoming months, CI Samoa will be:

• Compiling and analysis of its Guardians campaign feedback survey (paper based) that was conducted during the Aleipata campaign.

• Develop an electronic form for the Guardians feedback survey to ease collection and analysis of data of the upcoming campaign at second site.

• Conducting its Guardians campaign at second site Aiga I le Tai district which is located southwest of Upolu island on the 2nd-5th October 2018. The district is well known as a fishing community

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