OHA approves $100,000 in event grants

News Release from OHA, May 28, 2019     

HONOLULU – The Office of Hawaiian Affairs today announced the selection of 22 community events that will receive a total of $100,000 from OHA’s ʻAhahui Grants Program.

“OHA is excited to partner with these community events that will provide important opportunities to promote health, education, culture and land-based activities across the state for our Lāhui and the broader public,” said Kamanaʻopono Crabbe, OHA Chief Executive Officer and Ka Pouhana.

OHA’s ʻAhahui Grants Program provides funding to support eligible organizations hosting community events that benefit the Native Hawaiian community and align with OHA’s Strategic Results. The 22 community events represent the ʻAhahui Grants Program’s first round of awardees for Fiscal Year 2020. These events will occur between July 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019.

For more information on the ‘Ahahui Grants Program, please visit https://www.oha.org/grants.

The first round of Fiscal Year 2020 ‘Ahahui Grants Program awardees are:

HEALTH

Organization: Project Vision Hawaiʻi

Amount: $7,000

Project: A Hui for Health – Pāhoa

Island: Hawaiʻi

To bring health and hygiene services in a community gathering event for people experiencing homelessness on Hawaiʻi Island.

Organization: Big Island Substance Abuse Council

Amount: $2,500

Project: BISAC Summer Jam 2019

Island: Hawaiʻi

To raise awareness and build relationships in the community; celebrate and give back to the community; educate with exhibits from providers, cultural educational resources, and fitness organizations; and inspire with stories of recovery.

Organization: Hui No Ke Ola Pono

Amount: $6,000

Project: 2nd Annual ʻAha Mauliola – A Native Hawaiian Wellness Gathering

Island: Maui

To educate the community on health and wellness resources and to immerse Native Hawaiians in traditional cultural activities to strengthen identity and preserve, practice and perpetuate the culture.

Organization: Koʻolauloa Health Center, Inc.

Amount: $4,500

Project: National Health Center Week

Island: Oʻahu

To improve the quality of life for the people of Hawaiʻi by broadening the knowledge of healthcare resources through experiences and activities made available for keiki to kūpuna.

Organization: ALEA Bridge

Amount: $3,000

Project: Project Manaʻolana – Building Hope, Confidence & Stability

Island: Oʻahu

To promote physical, mental, emotional, and financial health for our severely low-income, and at-risk Native Hawaiian families, while engaging in various cultural activities.

Organization: Breastfeeding Hawaiʻi

Amount: $1,000

Project: Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselor Training

Island: Oʻahu

To increase Native Hawaiian rates of initiation and exclusive breastfeeding while reducing chronic disease and obesity through improved access to quality breastfeeding support skill sets in the community and revitalizing breastmilk as the first food.

EDUCATION

Organization: Kailapa Community Association

Amount: $5,000

Project: Nā Kilo ʻĀina Camp

Island: Hawaiʻi

To strengthen the relationships we have with our island landscapes through the integration of multiple knowledge systems supporting communities in building a holistic understanding of biological, cultural and social well-being.

Organization: Friends of Molokaʻi High & Middle Schools Foundation

Amount: $6,000

Project: Future Fest 2019

Island: Molokaʻi

To provide an opportunity for students and their immediate ʻohana to be college and career ready by participating in a resource fair, work site visitation, and building skill-sets.

Organization: Boys & Girls Club of Hawaiʻi

Amount: $4,000

Project: Nānākuli Summer Night Event

Island: Oʻahu

To gather Leeward Coast youth and their families for positive interactions; to learn about and enjoy Hawaiian cultural activities; and to celebrate the achievements of Boys & Girls Club of Hawaiʻi youth.

Organization: Bishop Museum

Amount: $1,000

Project: Pāka‘a Lanakila! – Hawaiian culture education for children through music

Island: Oʻahu

To create access to a music education opportunity that perpetuates Native Hawaiian language and culture.

LAND

Organization: Nā Mamo o Mūʻolea

Amount: $7,000

Project: Hana Limu Festival

Island: Maui

To celebrate limu and educate our community about its importance in marine ecosystem health and Hawaiian culture and diet, and to also promote related makai management issues.

CULTURE

Organization: Hāmākua Youth Foundation

Amount: $4,500

Project: Ka Hāmākua Makahiki

Island: Hawaiʻi

To celebrate Makahiki through friendly competition and collaboration. Creating the opportunity for Kānaka to replicate and practice mea paʻani Makahiki.

Organization: Kai ʻŌpua Canoe Club

Amount: $3,000

Project: Hoeamau

Island: Hawaiʻi

To teach keiki about the Hawaiian legacy of the waʻa, its history, its customs, its protocol, its pule, canoe rigging, canoe stories, the healthy lifestyle of paddling, ocean safety and the Hawaiian language.

Organization: Mālama Kauaʻi

Amount: $5,000

Project: Kaua‘i Pōhaku Implement Making Workshop for Cultural Practitioners

Island: Kauaʻi

To provide cultural training and expertise in stone implement making that is not currently available on island; to build the skills of 25 current and future cultural practitioners.

Organization: Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association

Amount: $3,000

Project: 2019 Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association State Championship Regatta

Island: Kauaʻi

To promote Hawaiian culture through participation in outrigger canoeing and to honor and perpetuate the tradition and protocol of the Hawaiian koa canoe through canoe racing in the state.

Organization: Lānaʻi Academy of Performing Arts

Amount: $5,000

Project: Haʻina Ka Puana – Let Our Story Echo On: Caring for the Traditions of Lānaʻi’s Storied Places

Island: Lānaʻi

To inspire aloha ʻāina on Lānaʻi. To redefine ourselves as heirs to the pono established by Kaululāʻau. To raise a generation of diverse Lānaʻi voices, with deep roots and the courage and creativity to not only speak the truth, but also to be heard.

Organization: Nā Wāhine O Ke Kai

Amount: $5,000

Project: Nā Wāhine O Ke Kai Molokaʻi to Oʻahu Canoe Race 2019

Island: Molokaʻi, Oʻahu

To perpetuate the tradition of canoe paddling. Each year participants share and honor this tradition, one another, and the wāhine that persevered to demonstrate that women could cross the Kaiwi channel.

Organization: Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī Foundation

Amount: $8,000

Project: ʻOnipaʻa Celebration 2019

Island: Oʻahu

To celebrate the 181th birthday of Queen Liliʻuokalani in the13th annual ʻOnipaʻa Celebration honoring Liliʻuokalani as a leader of peace and justice and Hawaiʻiʻs last sovereign.

Organization: Aloha Week Hawaiʻi DBA Aloha Festivals

Amount: $7,000

Project: Aloha Festivals

Island: Oʻahu

To foster the aloha spirit through the perpetuation of Hawaiian culture and the celebrations of the diverse customs and traditions of Hawaiʻi.

Organization: Papahana Kuaola

Amount: $6,500

Project: Kamahaʻo Nā Hulu Koʻo

Island: Oʻahu

To reach and encourage family and community participation in a multi-generational experience to expand their knowledge and understanding of the cultural significance of our wondrous feathered kūpuna of sea, sky and wetland.

Organization: Waiʻanae Coast Comprehensive Health Center

Amount: $5,000

Project: Mauka to Makai

Island: Oʻahu

To remove barriers for the community of Waiʻanae by providing free opportunities and access to cultural education, activities and places of historical significance in our ahupuaʻa.

Organization: Wahea Foundation

Amount: $1,000

Project: I Leʻa Ka Hula

Island: Oʻahu

To present world-class traditional hula to hula practitioners and Native Hawaiian community. Increase appreciation for and value of Native Hawaiian culture by consistently demonstrating high quality traditional practices.