Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 35, Number 6, 1 Iune 2018 — OHA for the People [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA for the People

LEO 'ELELE TRUSTEE MESSSAGES

A loha kakou e na po'e aloha / % 'āina.

Carmen "Hulu" Lindsey TrustEE, Msui

AI am sometimes asked, "What does OHA do for us?" What is OHA's mission? In the Admission Act of 1 959, the people established a puhlie trust whieh included among otherresponsibilities, betterment of conditions for native Hawaiians. In 1978, the people of the State of Hawai'i reaffirmed their solemn trust obligation and responsibility to native Hawaiians by establishing the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to address the needs of our Hawaiian people. OHA has always kept this purpose in mind. There are many ways

to carry out that purpose, and there is great need in our communities. Chapter 10 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes goes more in to detail on how OHA should manage its trust and with whom we should engage, but one of the many services that we provide for the community for whieh I am proudest are the grants and sponsorships that serve nonprofits that directly serve our communities. I'd like to highlight for you the following. In FY 2017, OHA awarded a total of $9,040,270 that went to serve our eommunities in the following categories: Culture, education, heahh, housing, ineome, and land. We were able to help notable nonprofit organizations like Kānehunamoku Voyaging Academy, who support the learning of our ancient wayfinding navigation skills. They provide a critical platfonn for our youth to learn and perpetuate the ancient ways in order to connect with our kūpuna. $500,000 went to serve the University of Hawaii - Office of Research Services that will support scholarships for higher education opportunities for the Native Hawaiian Scienee and Engineering Mentorship Program. $1.5 million was given to the Hawaiian Charter Schools to help sustain them. We were able to support the efforts to prevent

childhood obesity at the Kualapu'u Public Conversion Charter School on Moloka'i

through the Project Pū'olo with a grant of $135,256. This particular program helps to educate not only the students, but the families as well in making better heahh and nutritional decisions. OHA has continued to fulfill its commitment to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands with a grant of $3,000,000 per year. This money will go toward the debt service on the bonds issued by DHHL that went into establishing infrastructure support for housing. OHA was able to grant $221,500 to Goodwill Industries

of Hawaii, Ine. where they help support Native Hawaiians earn and obtain higherwage employments. We believe eeonomie development ean go a long way to supporting our lāhui and furthering their lives. As a land steward ourselves, we must put forth our efforts to supporting initiatives that help the land. Kako'o 'Ōiwi was granted $103,018 to go towards supporting their efforts in farming lo'i kalo in the 'ahupua'a of He'eia. The aforementioned grantees are just to name a few and I want to commend eaeh and every grant recipient this year and encourage you to holomua with your great work to support our people and communities. OHA is able to support other iniīiatives in our communities by way of Fiscal Reserve. In the past we were able to give nearly $500,000 to Lunalilo Homes to help with capital improvements of their facility to bring further comfort to our kūpuna. Another notable grant was given to the Polynesian Voyaging Society to support their efforts of circumnavigating the globe, putting Hawai'i on the map and advocating to the world to commit to sustainability. To be able to support our people at a loeal and even global level is humbling. It is truly my honor to be a part of serving our lahui. ■