Gallery: Students’ sports strategy to slash Samoan suicide statistics on World Health Day

Sport and smiles are both commonplace on the last day of school term but National University of Samoa students today used them to learn and teach some of the most important lessons of their young lives.

End of term in Samoa has coincided with World Health Day.

The theme for 2017 is depression and with youth suicide rates in Samoa amongst the worst in the world, Netball Samoa, supported by Australian Aid, has teamed up with the National University of Samoa for a day combining sport and strategy for coping with, and avoiding, depression.

In this AustraliaPlus photo essay we tell the story of this clever initiative through a series of photos from netball headquarters in Apia and illuminate the key themes of World Health Day along the way.