Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 1, 1 January 2004 — Remembering 2003, preparing for 2004 [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Remembering 2003, preparing for 2004

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! As the old year ends and the New Year begins, it's a good time to reflect on the past year's accomplishments and look forward to the year to eome. Overall, 2003 has been a good year. For OHA, we stayed the course and accomplished mueh. Our board functioned well and was most productive. Our Strategic Plan set direction and kept all of us focused on the tasks to be aeeomplished. Our staff met the challenge and is to be commended for all that we accomplished in 2003. For 2004, while nationhood, the Akaka Bill and the ceded land revenue settlement issues will remain our primary focus, we need to increase our programs more directly affecting our people. Among those, education should remain at the top of our list with particular attention to Hawaiian language and cultural-based charter

schools; Hawaiian language preschools; certification of our Hawaiian language teachers; expansion of post high school financial aid to include those seeking advanced degrees, i.e. master's and doctoral degrees; and, finally, eounseling of our Hawaiian students to keep them in college and monitor their progress. We also need to boost our programs to create eeonomie opportunities for our people. Our partnership with Alu Like needs to be strengthened and expanded. The Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund needs to be more aggressive in its application. As our State eeonomy begins to grow, our people need to be trained to be ahead of the curve for job opportunities. On the housing side, our partnership with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands needs to be continued and expanded. The selfhelp housing programs that have

been successful and have demonstrated to have met a need should be continued. The policies governing the OHA Homeownership Program, in conjunction with Fannie Mae, needs to be revisited to include financing of home improvements or new construction for those owning fee simple or kuleana lands. Attention should also be paid to the credit rating necessary to receive a loan; the current 103 program, whieh would allow the homebuyer to borrow the entire sales price and closing costs, requires perfect credit, severely limiting the number of qualified applicants. Recorded history of Hawai'i by Hawaiians of Hawaiians is archived and not available to our community at large. We need to facilitate documentation and publication of this rich history of Hawai'i nei, written by Hawaiians for Hawaiians. This important work needs to be done before it disappears all together.

OHA's partnership with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation needs to be expanded to meet the continual needs of our families to protect their property from alienation; to protect rights to ceded lands; and to protect cultural sites from destruction. Finally, there is the issue of health care. With needs for treatment of diabetes, the prevalence of heart and kidney diseases among Hawaiians coupled with the cost of medicine and access to treatment, this issue remains a challenge to be met. As you ean see, the year 2004 will be another year of challenge for OHA. The challenges ean be met provided we stay the course, keep focus on goal setting and empowerment of our able staff. 'A'ohe hana nui ke alu 'ia. No task is too big when done together by all. ■

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Oz Stender Trustee , At-large