MEDIA RELEASE – SWAP Headquarters

SWAP Foundation granted SLC land.

The Samoa Land Corporation has granted the SWAP Foundation 5 acres for their headquarters in Tafa’igata.

General Manager of SLC, Peseta Malouamaua Afoa Arasi Tiotio says that 5 acres in Tafa’igata has been allocated for the SWAP Foundation effective 9 May, 2011.

Dennis A. Smith, CEO of the SWAP Foundation, says that his team is “totally stoked” to now be able to start building their headquarters and upscale their operations.

“Securing land suitable for our requirements has been a real challenge”, he says. “We have previously been renting in Lotopa and Satapuala but we’ve been actively looking for a more secure longer term option for our base for a while”.

He says that locating suitable premises for a charitable organisation was a real challenge.

“Our staff and volunteers needed to be within reasonable driving distance to town for business meetings, yet we were also seeking sufficient space for projected growth. We established fairly quickly that we were unable to afford commercial rents in town, and then we experienced some pretty large challenges with renting customary land.”

“The SLC land has been a godsend to us, and we are deeply appreciative of the support received from the SLC Chairman and Prime Minister, Tuila’epa”, Dennis says.

SWAP co-founder, and wife Debbie Smith believes that the Prime Minster was supportive because of SWAP’s Internet Marketing expertise and their efforts to lift Samoa online.

“We know that the Prime Minister’s support of our application was in a large part due to our work on the Internet. We really look forward to developing the SWAP programme into something that we can all be proud of.”

The SWAP Foundation is a Samoa registered Charitable Trust founded by Debbie and Dennis A. Smith, New Zealanders who relocated to Samoa post-Tsunami. They bring volunteers to Samoa to assist with Internet Marketing and work with local businesses wanting to lift their game online.

Their website is www.swapsamoa.com.

They provide free training, networking and mentoring at a monthly SWAP Trade Night and one-on-one.

Permalink: http://www.swapsamoa.com/2011/05/media-release-swap-headquarters/

Media Contacts: Dennis A. Smith 777-9999 dennis@dennis.co.nz or Debbie Smith 777-4444 debbie@debbie.co.nz

High Resolution Image: http://www.swapsamoa.com/images/swap-logo-highres.jpg

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