Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 12, 1 December 2015 — ʻŌlelo a ka luna hoʻokele Message from the Ka Pouhana/Chief Executive Officer [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻŌlelo a ka luna hoʻokele Message from the Ka Pouhana/Chief Executive Officer

ALOHA MAI KĀKOU, Did you hear the one about how the Office of Hawaiian Affairs wūs ableto provide tutoring te hundreds of Native HūWūiion students so they could get o better educotion? Orwhat obout the one where OHA and its stoff were oble to help people in the poth of lovo flows on Howoi'i lslond by giving them emergency oid? Yes, it s not exoctlywoter-cooler moterial or something thot will make the loeol news.The steody good work thot we do every yeor is not heodline moteriol. It won'ī sell mony newspopers. But when you odd it oll up, we help thousonds of people every yeor, spending millions of dollors to support our lōhui in wovs biq and small.This is not o hand out but a hand up.

Our grants program is designed to getvarious service providers to leverage resources so every dollar we spend might mean two or three dollars in k actual services to the most needy in our community. I Meanwhile, we advocate for changes in laws and rules to protect our rights os notive peoples. But sometimes our greotest accomplishments ore the ones you don't see. Every yeor, dozens of bills ore considered ut the stute Legislature thot could negotively impact our people. We ore proud to soy we've been successful in gettingthose bills killed.

Meonwhile, we continue to make progress on woys to make sure Notive Howoiion truditionul ond customory rights ond proctices ore protected in perpetuity.This post yeor, we were oble to get o luw possed thot mandates troining for members of stute boords ond commissions on their responsibilities regording Notive Hawaiian rights ond the puhlie trust doctrine. The members of these boards ond commissions ore regulor people, like you or I, ond we've found thut they're very oppreciotive of these troining sessions. At OHA, we do o so manythings designedto make everyone's lives better. We've lounched websites ond programs to educote you obout our culturol ond politicol history. We've funded programs thut integrote culture into heolth ond wellness to help creote o holistic solution to bring down the rute of obesity among Native Howoiions. We're olso working toword becoming o co-steword of the Papahōnaumokuōkea Marine Notional Monument ond ore helping to underscore our strong culturol ties to the oreo, thut were sustūinobly managed by our oncestors forthousondsofyeors. You're holding in your honds o copy of our onnuol report. It's our woy of toking o step hoek ond letting you knowthefull scope ofwhot we're doing. But we're olso doing this in the spirit of tronsporency. You deserve to see our budgetory constroints ond our numbers.You need to know thot we ore plonning not just fortodoy, but ore exercising the necessoryfiscol restroint so we eon not only help this generotion but the next generotion ond eoeh succeeding generotion. It is my hope thot this report cord will give you o better ideo of whot we ore doing every doy to benefit Notive Hawaiians. 0 au iho nā me ke aloha a me ka 'oia'i'o, Kamana'opono M.Crobbe,Ph.D. Ko Pouhono, Chief Executive Officer