The Story

Hi, my name is Aska Hamakawa – founder of an NGO Earth Company and an eco hotel in Bali called Mana Earthly Paradise. My NGO supports impactful projects throughout the Asia Pacific, but this campaign is a personal one – to save a Samoan beach / surf accommodation from the climate crisis and sea level rise.

Samoa is where my life changed forever – all because of this Samoan family I met 20 years ago while backpacking around the Pacific Islands. They ran a humble beach accomodation called Sina PJ Beach Fales & Surf with the cutest 5 kids. Quickly, I fell in love with their traditional, self-sustaining, sustainable way of life. But after witnessing their beautiful life being threatened by sea level rise, I couldn’t bear the thought of countries like my own (i.e. Japan) were drowning the lives of these beautiful people. This led me to pursue a career in sustainability for the next 20 years, so meeting this family was the biggest turning point in my life.

But today, Sina PJ Beach Fales is facing the risk of going under – literally – and is in urgent need of help! This is why I decided to come back to Samoa after 14 years to help them rebuild their physical huts and overall business. 

In the next 7 days that I am here, I will advance the money as funds are raised, and the family will relocate the huts more inland where they are safer from the rising waves and refurbish them so they can continue to make a livelihood at this beautiful place! They don’t deserve to go under as a result of our comfortable life in advanced countries. So let’s help them survive and thrive!!!  

▶︎ The Effects of Sea Level Rise

In the past 20 years, the sea level rise and beach erosion have exacerbated considerably and unbelievably. Waves occasionally crash into the property, inundating the buildings and farm on which they rely for their subsistence living. The large beach they had before is gone and is now exposing roots of coconut trees that can fall any time. It’s a matter of time the existing huts will fall into the ocean.

In 2009, a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Samoa that generated waves up to 22 meters (72 feet) and killed at least a couple of hundred people.  So many Samoan families were devastated by this natural disaster.  Sina PJ Beach Fales was no exception; they lost their huts, their own house, and most of their personal belongings… pretty much everything except for their lives.

Some of their former guests including myself helped with the recovery efforts.  The family managed to rebuild 8 huts. Just the following year, however, five of them were destroyed by the deadly Cyclone Evan.  Cyclones have dramatically increased in scale and frequency in the region due to climate change.

The family business has not been able to fully recover from these two disasters…

▶︎ Poverty

Coping with the damages from sea level rise and cyclones became too costly that this family of 7 went into poverty. Over the years, they had lost so much of the beach that tourists stopped coming too. The government has tried to help by placing large rocks to stop the erosion, but their effectiveness is limited at best. With the erosion and large rocks, many tourists preferred to go to beaches with large white sand beach.

On top of all this, the COVID-19 pandemic happened, pushing them over the edge – into complete poverty. At times, the family had nothing to eat for weeks and the mom became seriously ill but couldn’t afford the necessary medical treatments.  The kids had to give up on going to school… So I have been financially supporting this family through these hardships, but that does not fundamentally address the root problem.

▶︎ The Survival Plan

After many discussions with the family members, the family decided to implement the following measures – depending on funding:

1. relocate the road more inland to gain and create more beach area
2. relocate the huts further away from the shoreline where they are safer from the crashing waves
3. refurbish the worn-out huts and add walls to make them more secure from the cyclones
4. buy an engine for their boat so they can take surfers out to one of the best surf spots in the world! Turtle snorkelling, fishing and spearfishing are also epic here.
5. buy a refrigerator for their restaurant as they have no functional fridge at the moment
6. make minor improvements like redecorating the restaurant, installing wi-fi, adding lamps, etc.
7. create a website & improve SEO to increase their exposure to potential customers
8. operational funds for the first month to help the family to restart the business

As donations are committed, I will advance the money and secure the building materials to relocate and refurbish the huts one by one. The rest will be conducted in the above order as the funds come in.  I sincerely hope we meet this fundraising goal so they can not only relocate and refurbish all the 6 existing huts, but also buy a boat engine to take tourists on boat rides for surfing and fishing, which can be invaluable income for them!

▶︎ What’s so awesome about this place?

〰The most traditional Samoan experience ever!〰

You will get the most traditional Samoan experience here from how to kill, prepare and cook pigs, how to spearfish, how to night-fish, how to make virgin coconut oil, how to make coconut cups, how to weave coconut leaf baskets, and how to plant and grow taro. You will get to enjoy some of the best Samoan food on the island!

〰 The Best Waves in Samoa! 〰

The outer reef left-hand break, commonly known as Wackas, is an epic surf spot located off the river mouth of the village. Wackas is a 3-minute boat ride from Sina PJ Beach Fales. When it’s under head high, it can be a fun wackable thing, and when it starts to get overhead, it becomes a fast throaty barrel. At double overhead on up you might get a glimpse of its heavier mini Teahupo’o impression.

For more inexperienced surfers, there’s another spot called Skate Park, right in front of Sina PJ Beach Fales with much friendlier waves.

〰 Snorkelling, swimming with the turtles, and epic fishing! 〰

The turtle spot is just a few minute swim from Sina PJ Beach Fales. It’s also a great fishing spot – learn how to fish, spearfish, night-fish from the master fisherman!

▶︎ Please help!

If you have visited Sina PJ Beach Fales and enjoyed surfing and the traditional Samoan life or fell in love with this family, please consider helping. They need you, us, more than ever. They don’t deserve any of the disastrous events in the recent years from the climate crisis, cyclones, tsunamis, to the pandemic. They have touched so many lives. Read the reviews on Google My Business to learn how much their customers loved the stay and the family 🙂 Thank you in advance for your support!!!

▶︎ Updates on the project

I will be sharing updates on the project with stories and posts on my instagram account. Once Sina PJ Beach Fales start its own instagram, I will post the link here!

▶︎ For Japanese donors

このページに来ていただいてありがとうございます。このクラウドファンディングページは、この宿のこれまでのお客さん含め海外の方々からもご寄付をいただけるように英語で作りましたが、ここに書いてある支援の必要性や背景は、私のこちらのFacebookの投稿に日本語で書いてありますので、ご一読頂けるととっても嬉しいです。またインスタグラムでもここでの暮らしや生活について投稿しておりますので、ぜひご覧ください。

1. 本プロジェクトで解決したい課題⬇️

• 海面上昇による侵食によりビーチの砂が波にのまれてなくなってしまい、ビーチを求める観光客が来なくなってしまった（来ても１週間に１組程度）
• 今あるファレ（ビーチに立つ小屋、宿泊施設）は足元の砂がかなり侵食され、海に倒れるのは時間の問題
• ファレも長年波に晒され、壁や床が腐り始めている
• 宿の目の前のオフショアにワールドクラスのサーフスポットがあるが、ボートのエンジンを買うお金がないため、プロサーファーたちがサーフスポットまで連れて行ってくれと頼みにくるが連れて行くことができない（貴重な収入源を失い続けている）

2. 本プロジェクトで成し遂げたいこと⬇️

1. 道を可能な限り海岸線から遠い場所（それでも数メートル）に移動し、元々砂道だった場所をビーチにしてしまうことで、ビーチをゲット！
2. ファレを、海面上昇の影響をより受けにくい海岸線からなるべく離れた場所に移築
3. 今あるファレの使える素材はそのまま使い、ファレの朽ちた部分の修繕には、この土地にある椰子の木の幹やマングローブの木を極力使った上で、この土地にないもののみ新たな材料を購入
4. ボートのエンジンを購入し、サーファーをサーフスポットに連れて行ったり、魚釣りやスノーケリング、マングローブツアー、サンセットツアーなどを行えるようにし、新たな収入源を作る
5. レストランに冷蔵庫を購入（現在は機能する冷蔵庫がない状態）
6. ファレの内装や照明、レストランの装飾、wi-fiを入れたり、マイナーな修繕・改善
7. ウェブサイト制作、SEOの改善を通して、観光客からのアクセスポイントを増やす
8. ビジネス再開後の軍資金

3. 集まったお金の使徒⬇️

4. 万が一目標達成できなかった場合⬇️

このクラウドファンディングは、私がサモアにいる間（5月5日まで）に達成を目指し、寄付の進み具合を見ながら、入るとわかった分を都度私が先払いする形で、同時並行でプロジェクトを進めます。上記セクション２にある順番の通り進め、全てのファレが移築できたらエンジンの購入を目指し、その後残りの修繕を手掛けます。

全てをこの7日間で成し遂げられるように、ご協力よろしくお願いします！

(英語での寄付が困難な方は、aska.hirabe@gmail.comまでご連絡ください！）