When the Director of UN Women took photos of Uila Faumuina Leota’s patchwork used for creating beautiful quilts and posted it on Facebook, she did not realise the opportunity would be a life changing experience.
That same day, Ms. Leota was told that her work immediately became a hit on social media.
She was soon bombarded with orders online, coming from all over the world.
People in places as far away as Mexico, Spain and New York among others were sending orders for hand-made quilts by Ms. Leota.
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She also received orders from the around the region in places like Fiji and elsewhere.
In Samoa, her first order came from a prominent member of the community asking for 10 quilts in one go.
“I couldn't believe that the interest would be so high,” she said. “So I worked hard and I made sure the orders were supplied on time and they were.”
Surprised at why people in such far away countries would want her quilts, she wanted to repay the people for their kindness and interest.
She wanted to do this by making sure her quilts were of the best quality, not wanting to disappoint her customers. Since that day, she has not looked back.
Her photos on Facebook included some of other work; pillows, bags and door rugs.
Prominent businesswoman, Vaimasenu’u Zita Martel, also interviewed Ms. Leota about her work and again uploaded the article and photos on to Facebook.
That only fueled more interest from overseas.
For Ms. Leota, life has never been the same. There are some nights when she works throughout to complete her orders.
But she finds no problem in this "because I love doing what I do".
This week, her work is being displayed at the S.I.D.S venue at Tuana’imato where among the topics being discussed is the empowerment of women and children to ensure sustainable development for S.I.D.S.
Ms. Leota knows that her work is quality but she admits that if it not receive the right exposure, she would have been struggling like so many small business people.
As a strong believer in sharing her talents with others, Ms. Leota has since taught her daughter and daughter-in-law in making quilts and bags. She has also trained women from her church at Tuaefu.
"Share your talents so that it can grow in abundance but don't hide it because it will be forgotten or it will never grow," she said.
As a teacher she is proud to acknowledge the support and encouragement from her former students from Pesega and Punaoa through likes on Facebook.
Ms. Leota is currently a lecturer at the National University of Samoa in textile and technology.
She urges all women to "make use of our hands-if you have talents use it to empower yourselves".
"I am empowered in many ways and so now I can help others create a future for themselves by sharing my talents with them by training them how to make quits."
Ms. Leota believes this is the way forward to obtaining sustainability for Samoa.
"This is my contribution to our country's development."
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