(Picture caption: The FiaFia Lima YES team from Mangere College is helping the community to stay prepared in emergencies, with its product, Pusa Faigaluega, or Toolbox.)
As the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) celebrates its 40th anniversary, the number of Pacific students taking part in the initiative is increasing every year. Over the next few months, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) will profile Pacific YES teams – we hope you get behind and support these budding entrepreneurs too...
FiaFia Lima, from Mangere College, Auckland
When Mangere College YES team FiaFia Lima was deciding on a product for this year’s Young Enterprise initiative, they only had to look as far as the severe weather events impacting Aotearoa New Zealand.
The all-Pacific team says at the start of the year, when its members were choosing a product to sell, extreme weather was wreaking havoc around Aotearoa New Zealand, affecting many communities.
What the team noticed, was a lot of people were not fully prepared or organised with tools to assist them in emergencies, and FiaFia Lima believed a toolbox could be useful in helping people to get organised for when disaster hits.
So, Pusa Faigaluega, meaning Toolbox in Gagana Samoa, was born.
The idea behind Pusa Faigaluega is to bring awareness about keeping tools in one place in case of any emergency, so people can find everything quickly and use it if they need to.
Pusa Faigaluega is an easy-to-carry, multi-purpose tool kit, made from recycled materials – mostly wood pieces from students’ woodwork projects, and with a little help from the Mangere College wood material teacher.
FiaFia Lima is selling Pusa Faigaluega at local markets – find out where on the team’s Facebook page.
The Young Enterprise initiative has supported a total of 5000 students (up until 2022), mentoring and developing their entrepreneur skills and ambitions.
This year, 482 Pacific students from around Aotearoa New Zealand are taking part in the hugely beneficial initiative, an increase from the 457 students last year.
To take part in YES, student groups or businesses must complete four challenges, Validation, The Pitch, Sales and Promotion and the fourth challenge of presenting an Annual Review.
There is over $20,000 in the national prize pool as well as regional awards, cash prizes and tertiary scholarships, while students also have opportunities to attend national business competitions, events and go on partner programmes.
Visit the YES Market website for information on teams’ products and services.