Samoa, Oceania

The ISAAC Study in Samoa was the first major project handed to me to do after I completed my undergraduates and in my second year of work. It was a study introduced by Dr Sunia to Dr Nuualofa Tuuau-Potoi and supported by the then Director General of Health the late Dr Taulealeausumai Eti Enosa. It took us approximately 1 month to collate all the data and tally and ship them. We did not get an allowance for working in this study as it is the norm in projects attached to Health service but the experience obtained from this exposure has helped in the development of health research of this magnitude and taking the experience on in the law and justice sector which I am now employed in.

Mr Mose Faatamala worked on in the Ministry of Health as a leading Health Educator until 2007 when he migrated to New Zealand with his young family and where they now reside. His ability to command an audience as required by his profession and made easy by his personality was a significant contributor to the success of ISAAC Samoa. Our field survey was implemented in an unfavourable time for the Education curriculum as exams were pending. However, the speed in which the questionnaires were explained and understood and taken from one school to another favoured both the limited time granted to us by the schools and the timeframe planned for ISAAC Samoa to complete. Through this story, Mr Faatamala's contribution to the ISAAC Study in Samoa and around the world, can be acknowledged and recognised.

Due credit must also go to the then Assistant Chief Executive Officer Public Health in the Samoa Ministry of Health Namulauulu Dr Nuualofa Tuuau-Potoi for her vision in bringing ISAAC to Samoa and the late Lolofietele Dr Eti Enosa for his faith and support in Samoa joining this global study. Health resources were used to take this study to the selected schools. ISAAC and MOH also needs to acknowledge and thank the Samoa Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture without whom, the opportunity to collect this number and level of data for this study, would not have been possible. To the late Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry Mr Tupae Esera and the Division of School Operations for the prompt and organised assistance in allowing the study to be in school hours, Faafetai tele.

Samoa is aspiring to meet the MDGs and I hope the data collected will be fully utilised by health professionals to inform public health policy and improve child health in asthma and other allergies in children. Thank you ISAAC for the experience.

Soifua.