A Samoan organisation which has helped around 10,000 children faces a David and Goliath battle with the level of demand in the country.
The Samoa Victim Support Group (SVSG) is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year and needs more land and help for the most vulnerable.
Its Campus of Hope refuge housed around 70 children at any given time – many who were victims of physical and sexual violence and neglect.
Founder and SVSG President Siliniu Lina Chang told 1News the organisation has had many successes but the need was growing.
"To be upfront, we do need funding and a lot of funding because if we have funding we will be able to recruit staff and also have the resources available at all time," she said.
Supreme Court Judge Justice Vui Clarence Nelson had been part of the SVSG journey since it started 20 years ago.
"We are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff... this thing has already gone over the cliff. We need to look at preventative measures really long and hard," he said.
There was also a challenge to the Samoan Government to do more.
"The facilities are becoming overcrowded and there's a crying and a pressing need for Samoa Victim Support to be given access to land to build — we have donors who want to build but we don't have the land and the capacity," he said.
Reverend Toleafoa Leatuao Tupa'i-Lavea, an SVSG ambassador, said more needed to be done to help the children who left the refuge as young adults.
"I challenge every church in Samoa, stop building bigger buildings, start building transition homes for the young adults moving out of campus into the world."
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