Women’s Community Action Program Donates Books to Ta’iala Academy

W-CAP was very excited to be featured on the front page of the Samoa News! Here is the photo and article:

Mrs. Ali Pili, the Executive Director of Women’s Community Action Program (W-CAP) spent a delightful morning reading with the 1st and 2nd graders of Mrs. Amuia Ulufale’s class of Ta’iala Academy in Mapusaga Fou...after the group made a large donation of several hundred reading books to the school last week.

Mrs Phyllis Hall, a librarian from Salt Lake City, Utah, made the book donation possible through her kind generosity to W-CAP.

W-CAP is a local non-profit foundation dedicated to guiding the women and children of American Samoa to develop and create a lifestyle of self-sufficiency.

Volunteer Highlight - Barb Gabby

Barb Gaddy is an incredibly gifted seamstress, but most specifically, quilter. Through her W-CAP received many beautiful handmade quilts, pillowcases, lavalavas (sarongs) and donations to bless the lives of many in need. She also taught the women in micro-enterprise classes how to sew bags of all styles and shapes to sell to the tourists. Barb was the genius, along with Melinda Temple, in designing and sewing the puppets for the Tsunami Puppet Show. She blessed W-CAP with donations, sewing supplies, fabrics, teaching skills and many, many more creative ideas of what to make and sell for micro-enterprise.

Barb has been sewing since she was very young.  In fact, she made all of her clothes for college.  Now, she mostly quilts and loves to do crafts.  She has her blog that she updates regulalry - Bejeweled Quilts by Barb.  We are grateful she has included a donation button for W-CAP on her blog!

 

Barb and her family left the Island last November. W-CAP suffered a huge loss when she left us, but she continues to bless us with the many who learned to sew from her efforts and through donations she continues to send.

 

In Barb's own word "I will say that living in Samoa was one of the most awesome experinces of my life.  I truly miss the island and everyone.  I would come back in a heart beat."

 

A special hats off to Barb! Thanks for sharing your amazing talents.

Healthy Eating - Chinese Cabbage

As part of W-CAP's ongoing efforts to inspire and educate, we will be featuring a vegetable or fruit each month with ideas and recipes to go along with it.  To see the the past Health Eating posts for additional recipes and ideas click here.

The vegetable this month is Chinese cabbage!

HOW TO USE CHINESE CABBAGE:

·         SOUPS SUCH AS PILIKAKI, CHICKEN

·         STIR FRY WITH FISH, LAMB FLAP, ETC.

·         CHOP SUEY

·         STIR FRY WITH GARLIC AND SMALL AMOUNT OF SALT

·         STEAM AND SERVE WITH BROWN RICE OR SAIMIN
        NOODLES

·         CHOP FRESH INTO SALADS

CHINESE CABBAGE AND SAIMIN

1  2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

1 cup water

3 cups water chicken broth (or substitute water with 3 chicken bouillon cubes)

1/2 pound chicken, chopped

2 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch slices

1 small bunch Chinese cabbage, chopped

1  3-ounce package ramen noodles, coarsley broken in package; (flavor packet discarded)

Directions:

·         Mince ginger and put in saucepan with the water and broth, bring to a boil.

·         Add chicken pieces, reduce heat, then simmer slowly, covered, about 5 minutes. Remove chicken and allow to cool  in refrigerator.

·         Add carrots and Chinese cabbage to soup, simmer, covered until tender.

·         Add Saimin noodles and simmer, covered, about 3 minutes.

·         While noodles are cooking, coarsely shred chicken and then stir into hot soup.

 

STIR FRIED CHINESE CABBAGE

1 tablespoon oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

8 cups chopped fresh Chinese cabbage

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Salt and ground black pepper

Directions:

·         Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

·         Add garlic and ginger and cook 1 minute.

·         Add Chinese cabbage & soy sauce, cook 3 to 5 minutes, until greens are wilted and crisp-tender.

CHINESE CABBAGE SALAD

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup white sugar or sugar substitute

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/4 cup margarine or butter

2 (3 ounce) packages Saimin noodle, crushed

1 medium head Chinese cabbage (more tender is better!)

3 green onions

Directions:

·         In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, sugar and soy sauce. Set aside.

·         Melt the margarine over medium heat in a small skillet. Crush the ramen noodles and saute until everything is golden brown. Remove from heat and drain on a paper towel.

·         Chop the Chinese cabbage and green onions and add to a large bowl. Just before serving, sprinkle with the noodle mixture and dressing, and toss to coat.

Volunteer Highlight - Joan Holland

Joan Holland is a great volunteer for W-CAP and we appreciate all that she does. She's a 75 years old widow who has helped W-CAP extensively as a creative consultant, translator, and teacher of the micro-enterprise courses. She also is active as an artist and a volunteer for the Cancer Coalition in American Samoa. She was the first stewardess for the Pan American Airlines when they began to fly in American Samoa. A special thanks to Joan Holland for her efforts.

July's WIC Nutrition Fair

On Saturday, July 30th, W-CAP, in conjuction with WIC, hosted a nutrition fair on Utulei Beach.  It was great to enjoy even more games and sponsor then we have ever had before.  There was a water balloon toss through hula hoops, horse shoes, as well as our favorite bean bag, and spin for the prize nutrition games. 

We had around 175 people attend! In addition we had many healthy food demostrations - vegetable potato pancakes, white bean and basil soup, sardine cucumber cups.  All examples of great ways to use fresh local vegetables.

 

We would like to recognize several of our sponsors and thank them for their generous donations. We had better prizes and gift certificates then ever before!

Cost-U-Less - donated a grand prize of a gas 3 way cooking unit.  Thank you!

Ace Hardware
Niu Culinary Arts School
Carl's Jr.

KFC

Pizza Hut

Niuborn Baby Store

American Samoa Community College

McDonald's

Sea Grant

Origin Gas

Pritchard's Bakery

 

A special thanks to the following organizations for their participation - the Public Health Department, Land Grant Argiculture, and Efnep Nutrition.  Also appreciate W-CAP's agricultural specialist Brook Gurr  who shared her inspiration and talent for starting a family garden.