“Hope” is the motto behind a project that American Samoa’s Territorial Teacher of the Year 2016 Mrs. Rosita Esene Sola worked on with her students who wrote letters sending messages of encouragement and bible verses to the inmates at the Tafuna Correctional Facility.

In an email to Samoa News, Mrs. Sola said this is a community service project that she came up with, following her summer trip to the Space Camp in Alabama.

“I was on the road in Alabama and two homeless women asked for bus fare. I gave them $2 and it reminded me that I should have a community service project when I return home. I thought about our community and where family support is most needed.”

Mrs. Sola said that her husband was held at the TCF for two weeks due to a misdemeanor peace disturbance charge, and this gave her the idea of which community she would provide the service to — the inmates. “I decided that it was time for me to carry out this project for all the TCF inmates.”

The students wrote letters on September 16 and they were delivered to TCF the next day, with the idea of giving the inmates hope for a better tomorrow. She said that there was a total of 81 letters — including a letter she wrote along with her students.

Mrs. Sola spoke about her experience while visiting her husband inside TCF. “When I visited my husband on the weekends, I heard some untold stories about the lives of the inmates. I found out the struggles and the hard experiences that they go through after breaking the law. Some of them were never visited by a relative due to shame and disgrace of family names.”

The 2016 TTOY also spoke of how living healthy inside the jail is important.

“While teaching health, I taught a lesson on mental and emotional problems this month to my seventh graders. When your heart hurts, it also stresses the mind, and causes people to react out of anger. Actions stem from internal conflicts, and for whatever reason, one person can hurt so many people.

“One of the major issues I discussed with my students is suicide.

“We talked about the reasons why people turn to suicide. I was very surprised with their feedback, and they wrote essays to express themselves on this issue,” she said.

Mrs. Sola said her goal for this project is to reach out to those who are in need of support and prayer.

“These people are no different from me and my students. We all make mistakes, and there are times that we hurt each other’s feelings. TCF is not a dark place at all. It is a better place to shine the light of Christ into these people's lives.

“In their hopeful letters, my students wrote scriptures, songs, poems, and friendly comments to let the inmates know that we care for them. We used construction paper and created designs outside the letters.

“In closing, my students wrote sincerely with their initials and villages at the bottom of each letter,” the teacher said.

“We want to show love for our own people and let them know that we do not forget them in our prayers. These are the people we pray for everyday.

“Whatever lesson I teach, I try to build connections from the classroom to real life situations so my students will know that going to prison is not a joke.”

Mrs. Sola said, “One of the people that I saw in TCF is my high school student from 7 years ago. I was surprised when he called out ‘teacher’. I turned around and said to him, ‘of all places, I taught you to not end up is here’.

“It was a very touching moment for me to see a student there. I've learned that most of our police officers are now resigning from duty due to lack of funds to pay their overtime. I have also learned that drugs and alcohol have been circulating around the island for a long time, and the law needs to be revisited often to better serve our community. If we want our children to have a better future, we need to show them that living a drug free life is the key to achieve.

“Our government needs to stand for what is right and just to save our people from breaking the law.

“We want the youth to seek good careers and give back to the community when they return to the islands. Most of our children will not return if they keep hearing bad news from the island. These hopeful letters will give the TCF inmates a positive outlook on life and they deserve to be treated well just like every other person who is outside of prison,” said the 2016 Territorial Teacher of the Year Mrs. Sola.