Samoa x Sarah, Duchess of York

The first part of our journey will welcome you deep into the Pacific to the Samoan islands, where you will be introduced to the basics of sustainability while being deeply engaged with the Samoan people of our homesite, the small village of Poutasi. We will be hosted by Poutasi village High Chief Tuatagaloa Joe Annandale, also the owner of Sinalei Reef Resort, where we will be staying in Samoa.

While on the small island, your group will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly we will be immersed and welcomed into the village environment. We will engage in thoughtful experiences designed to bring the concepts of circular economy to life, as the foundation for our pilot program. Your daughters will compare waste audits with their Samoan peers, challenging their notions of waste, and the entire group will participate in plate weaving with local women before sharing a traditional meal, which will highlight how minimizing waste is a part of everyday Samoan life. Our nonprofit partner, will give us frontline access to their pilot program, supported by several of the Samoan ministries, through which a fully circular economic composting solution for diapers will have been unveiled a few weeks prior to all the leaders of the Commonwealth at CHOGM, 2024.

As a takeaway, both mothers and daughters will gain insights into our current ‘take, make, waste’ world, and innovative alternatives that mimic nature and regenerate natural systems. This pilot, once mature, will eradicate nearly a third of Samoan waste and redirect it back into the agricultural needs of the villages. The concept of “true costs” are also explored as we dig into the current economic model that ignores the cost of the waste that companies produce. This includes not only the pollution created, but the cost of the clean-up and the environmental damage it creates, and importantly. who bears the burden of these expenses.

We will be joined on our trip by the vivacious global leader Sarah, Duchess of York. The Duchess will join us for both powerful moments with the local community and intimate settings with our group when you will hear her many life stories, her perspective on why climate change is one of the most important global issues of our time, all while enjoying the company of one of the world’s most beloved members of the extended British royal family. Having spent much of her philanthropic career working with children, your daughters will be beyond inspired by her words of wisdom and call to action.

The mothers in our group will join the Duchess in conversation with powerful women in the Samoan government, of which the Prime Minister and much of the senior cabinetry are female, while your daughters will spend their day in workshops with local youth leaders who are empowering young women to play a significant role in leading political and cultural change in Samoa. To complement all this programming, there will still be plenty of time for adventuring to the infamous To Sua Ocean trench, swimming with the turtles and exploring a private island by way of kayak.

This first part of our journey will leave both mothers and daughters with an understanding for early philanthropy concepts that span framing global challenges, understanding global players working to solve those challenges, power dynamics, what makes for great partnerships and lastly, firsthand experience with how nonprofits approach solutions for long-lasting impact.