OHA Approves $22,000 in Event Grants for Big Island

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) announced the selection of 22 community events that will receive a total of $100,000 from OHA’s ʻAhahui Grants Program, a May 30, 2019, press release stated.

Five of the 22 events are located on Hawai‘i Island, for a total of $22, 000.

“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 CEO 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 and Dec. 31, 2019.

For more information on the ‘Ahahui Grants Program, go online.

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. 

1. 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.

About the Office of Hawaiian Affairs

Established by the state Constitutional Convention in 1978, OHA is a semi-autonomous state agency mandated to better the conditions of Native Hawaiians. Guided by a board of nine publically elected trustees, OHA fulfills its mandate through advocacy, research, community engagement, land management and the funding of community programs. Learn more at www.oha.org.