The funding for the planned health center being built by the Hope Mission Ministries at Lions Park Housing in Tafuna has been secured.
Domata Peko of Denver Broncos fame and his wife Anna have pledged to fund the total cost of the project which according to Bishop Vaifanua Mulitauaopele, who heads the local board that is overseeing the project, is $640,000.
The couple arrived in the territory yesterday and were today guests of honor at a gathering at the Tradewinds Hotel.
According to Bishop Mulitauaopele construction of the health center is expected to begin in the early part of next month.
“Everything is in place with the land”, said Mulitauaopele. “We have a few things to finalize with the government concerning permits but everything is a go.”
At the gathering this afternoon the Board which is overseeing the health center project, presented a tanoa, orator’s staff, and a whisk to Domata and his wife. The former NFL star was also given an honorary matai title Toomata from Samoa.
Dr. Stuart Hamilton who founded the organization told KHJ News in an interview last week, that medical personnel who work at their centers in South Carolina will come to American Samoa as part of their rotation.
He said this will ensure that the center will have US certified doctors and nurses.
The gathering today also wraps up a successful medical mission by Hope Mission Ministries to Samoa and American Samoa.
After a clinic on Savaii island, this past Tuesday a team of doctors and nurses from the organization checked residents at the Territorial Administration on Aging Office in Pago Pago and they also held a clinic in Iliili during the Fourth of July holiday.
