The Maui News

WAILUKU–Maui Hui Mālama on Sunday announced a grant award totaling $136,666 that will support the Native Hawaiian community through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Kumuwaiwai Na’auao-Educational Resources Grant.

The grant will help to reinforce and strengthen Native Hawaiians’ connections to ‘ohana (family), mo’omeheu (culture), and ‘āina (land and water), and support work in OHA’s Mana I Maoli Ola strategies and outcomes.

The purpose of “Breaking Barriers and Creating Connections to Education, Careers, and Culture” is to provide holistic, integrated educational services to support Maui County Native Hawaiian high needs youth and their families in overcoming barriers to education through one-on-one tutoring, case management (supporting families to navigate educational options and receive warm-touch referrals), and Hawaiian cultural and art activities.

“It’s not easy for a child to tell their teachers the reason they’ve been missing school is because they have to take care of their disabled grandparent during the day or that they fall asleep in class all the time because they help their parents clean office buildings at night so they can help pay for the rent. It’s also not easy for a student to tell her teacher that no matter how many times the teacher re-writes the math problem on the whiteboard, the numbers just don’t look right or make any sense to her. Sadly, a lot of times it’s easier and less embarrassing for them to just be labeled as lazy than to try to tell the truth and get help,” Maui Hui Mālama’s Executive Director, Tamara Tanaka said. “When we work with a youth and their ‘ohana, we meet them where they’re at and help them to create a plan that empowers the youth to have a voice and a support team that will work with them to remove barriers. We also do our best to help them identify their strengths, interests, and what they value or care about most so that we can connect them with or create educational opportunities that will inspire and motivate them to learn and do more.”

Tanaka added, whether their interest is in caring for ‘āina and growing kalo, exploring our streams and learning about hīhīwai, or going fishing with us and anticipating that hanapa’a day when they catch their first big papio (or their first fish), we have fun learning with them and are proud to see their growth in becoming our next “teachers.” With every youth who comes to us, our team understands that this could be the positive change that their ‘ohana will live with for generations to come.