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Lahaina-based nonprofit awarded $1.6 million to serve Maui’s Filipino community

The Kaibigan ng Lahaina nonprofit has been awarded a $1.6 million grant from the Hawai’i Community Foundation through the Maui Strong Fund to support its work serving Maui’s Filipino community following the 2023 Lahaina Wildfires.

The organization, whose name means “Friends of Lahaina” in the Filipino language, was founded by Filipino survivors of the wildfires that killed more than 100 people and destroyed much of Lahaina town.

The organization is guided by a seven-member board of directors who are primarily Lahaina residents.

“We have a deep commitment and inherent connection to this place and all of its people, and as Filipinos we are dedicated to establishing a platform to empower our kaibigans as resilient community members with valuable contributions to Lahaina and the future of Maui,” Board President Nestor Ugale said in a statement.

Kaibigan Ng Lahaina’s grant includes funding for four core programming areas meant to address the short-term and long-term recovery of Lahaina Filipinos including:

– A resource navigation program called SAWALI, symbolically named after an indigenous

Filipino weaving technique used to build traditional homes;

– A mental health and well-being program called AMIN, meaning “us” or “we” in in the

Tagalog and Ilokano languages;

– A workforce and youth development program called WAYA, named after the Ilokano

root word for “freedom” or “liberation”

– A cultural education program called ILI, named after the Ilokano word for “land-base” and

connoting a community of belonging.

“The Filipino community is the second-largest ethnic group on Maui and made up about 44% of Lahaina’s population before the fire. Post-disaster, we experienced a lack of translation services and culturally informed programming and outreach for Filipinos by Filipinos of Lahaina,” Ugale said. “We recognized and appreciated the immediate disaster relief that poured in from outside organizations. We realized then that the path to a sustainable and more resilient future for our Filipino community would require a more collaborative and integrated approach led by our own community members.”

According to Debra Andres Arellano, the Kaibigan ng Lahaina board’s vice president, Filipinos are still underserved by social programs and underrepresented in leadership positions on Maui despite being here since at least 1906.

“Our programs respond by filling critical gaps in services, while envisioning a new future for our community,” she said. “We envision Kaibigan ng Lahaina as the opportunity for Filipinos to be empowered and resourced to build a Lahaina where Filipinos are rooted, culturally connected, and thriving as leaders — culturally, economically and politically.”

Kaibigan ng Lahaina is currently operating at the Kāko’o Maui and Office of Recovery in West Maui, in partnership with the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. The organization plans to establish a resource center as a hub for the community, offering a centralized location for resources and support for current and long-term needs.

“A physical location will allow our community a place to meet, heal and connect with services, similar to the Kākoʻo Maui Relief & Aid Services Center operated by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement,” said Eric Arquero, the nonprofit’s executive director, in a statement. “Having this space will allow us to build our relationships with people and partner organizations,

necessary for the kind of personal and in-depth services informed by cultural values and the

place of Lahaina, which we provide.”

For more Kaibigan Ng Lahaina and its services, go to KaibiganNgLahaina.org or call (808) 303-8289. The nonprofit is also active on Facebook and Instagram.

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