Samoa
Samoa Fa'afafine Association
Samoa Fa'afafine Association (SFA) is an organisation based in Samoa, which provides support for LGBTQ+ communities.
It organises the annual Miss Fa'afafine pageant, provides sexual health educational programming and advocates for the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Samoa, in particular its fa'afafine communities.
Background
The Samoa Fa'afafine Association (SFA) was founded in 2006, against a background of decades of fa'afafine organising in Samoa.
It was initially founded by a group of ten fa'afafine, who came from professional backgrounds. Two of the co-founders were Ymania Brown and To’oto’oali’I Roger Stanley; the latter became the first President of the SFA in 2006.
From its inception, the patron of the SFA has been the Samoan president, Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi.
The SFA is aligned with several LGBTQ+ organisations, both in the pacific region and globally, including the International Trans Fund and International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
My Girls Club
Samoan fa'afafine group, My Girls Club, was established in 2009 by a fa'afafine group of friends and members of the Samoa Fa'afafine Association.
Later, the group evolved into a solitude platform to ending stigma and discrimination towards fa'afafine, and prolonging common interests, sisterhood, friendship and faafafabulous.
Its members gather regularly for informal meetings.
THRIVE Initiative
The THRIVE Initiative is a special program under SFHA that seeks to provide sexually diverse men with access to confidential testing and counseling services for HIV and STI’s.
Established initially as a grassroots project and driven by a local physiotherapist, Matthew Amituanai, the initiative uses social media apps to mobilize men who have sex with men as well as transgender individuals.
The initiative was brought under SFHA in 2018 and supported by UNDP/GF.
Participants receive the full package of prevention programming and are referred to the Communicable Disease Clinic for follow-up.