Habele fundraising t-shirts now for sale!

In 2006 a group of former Peace Corps Volunteers established a US-based nonprofit to advance educational opportunity and access across Micronesia.

Since that time Habele has provided book donations, awarded tuition scholarships, supported cultural mentors and created a Micronesia wide high school robotics league.

For a decade and a half, Habele’s unique and distinctive t-shirts have been sent to, and worn by, students, teachers and volunteers throughout Micronesia. They raise awareness and celebrate the work of our partners. They showcase designs, patterns and forms distinctive to the Federated States.

Now select Habele shirts can be purchased online with all proceeds benefiting the work of Habele!

Pohnpei Science Fair Highlights Robotics Learning

In May, students from high schools and elementary schools across Pohnpei gathered for the 2021 Science Fair at Pohnpei Island Central School (PICS). The PICS booth showcased the achievements of the school’s Robo Club, including a full scale competition game board for visitors to try their hand at directing robots through various challenges.

In addition to opportunities for hands-on interaction with robotics, PICS displayed their state-of-the-art 3D printer, one of the few to be found in the islands. The printer will be used to fabricate custom parts for robotics builds and competitions, while growing student knowledge of a rapidly evolving technology. PICS was one of four high schools across the Federated States of Micronesia to be awarded a 3D printer, after having robotics instructors and students successfully complete a virtual robotics certification course.

PICS has been a member of the Habele Robo League since 2018, and is one of 23 participating high schools across the FSM.

 

Soldiers, Students team to Donate Books to Micronesia

Books headed to students in Kosrae, Island of the Sleeping Lady

A group of off-duty US Army soldiers in Hawaii have teamed up with a public school on Oahu, students in the school’s Junior Naval ROTC unit, and a nonprofit founded by former Peace Corps Volunteers to send books to a school-based library in Kosrae.

Diverse in culture and language, the far-flung picturesque islands of Micronesia are strategically situated. The Federated States of Micronesia are the geopolitical crossroads of the Pacific. The islands’ dramatic role in centuries of global politics obscures persistent challenges of isolation, dispersion, and limited resources.

Once part of a US administered Trust Territory, today Micronesia’s far-reaching alliance with the US is cemented through a Compact of Free Association, or COFA, that defines defense and development ties between the nations.

The eastern most state of the Federated States of Micronesia, Kosrae, is home to fewer than seven thousand islanders, living on forty square miles of land, with an average household income of just $15,000. The isolated island is more than three hundred miles from neighboring Pohnpei, home to the national capital. From offshore, the distinctive shape of the Kosrae, densely covered with vegetation atop steep mountains, resembles the female form, earning the nickname “the sleeping lady.”

Schools across Micronesia need books for their school-based libraries, which serve both students and members of the community at large. Staff at James Campbell High School and a group of Army Reservists resolved to help, enlisting the support of students at the high school’s Navy JROTC detachment.

“We were thrilled to collaborate with Campbell High School and Habele to get used library books to deserving people in the COFA States,” explained John Yoshimori of Aiea. “In my opinion we are providing reading opportunities to students in the American Affiliated Pacific and hopefully showing the general public that soldiers are human beings capable of planning and executing humanitarian activities also as well as combat operations!”

Over the last six months more than seventy boxes of books, totaling over two thousand pounds, have been gathered by these and other Habele volunteers for public schools across Micronesia. The nonprofit receives requests from Micronesian schools in Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae, then matches them with offers from American schools and individuals looking to donate.

“Child development is the foundation for community and economic development” explained Neil Mellen of Habele, a US nonprofit established by former Peace Corps Volunteers that works with students across Micronesia. “All facets of human capital are formed by abilities developed early in life and we always have more book requests from our partner schools than we can meet.”

Habele K12 Tuition Scholarships Micronesia, FSM

Invest in Scholarships for Micronesian Students

Friends of Habele,

Once a year, this fundraising letter is sent to a modest list of individual Americans with some personal connection to the Islands of Micronesia. You, the reader, may be a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, formerly of the State Department, family of a serviceman or official who served in the Islands, an academic with regional expertise, or a one-time tourist who fell in love with Micronesia.

Every spring we write asking for support to award K12 tuition scholarships. Promising students who need financial assistance to attend Micronesia’s top-rated schools send us applications. We write checks to the school in the student’s names for a portion of tuition. Their families pay the rest. Over the school year these students provide us report cards, photos and letters.

Each year, the number of scholarships awards depends on the response to this letter and donations made at the end of the calendar year. Deserving requests always exceed Habele’s ability to meet them. Scholarship are entirely funded by individual donations, never grants. That is not for want of grant writing and solicitations. Despite years of attempts, the life-altering scholarships have never received support beyond those sent by private individuals like you.

I am very proud of all of Habele’s work. High school robotics, targeted book donations and cultural mentorships are all highly effective and efficient. But tuition scholarships -the direct investment in the future of a singular young Micronesian working to advance themselves- is what I take greatest pride in.

I hope you feel the same way. Please donate now by check or online at www.habele.org/donate.

Thank you,

-NM

New to Habele? Learn what we do, in 90 seconds, from the students we serve!

Micronesian Looms: Weaving Connections in the US (1)

Micronesian Weaving of Lavalava Skirts on Backstrap LoomThis is the first in a series of posts dealing with Weaving Connections, a project of Habele to sustain and preserve Micronesian backstrap weaving traditions among Island populations who’ve migrated to the United States mainland. More here

Framing the Problem

Though loom weaving of skirts is central to daily life in the Caroline Islands, few FAS women who come to United States can bring or obtain, a working backstrap loom appropriate to this weaving style. This severs the centuries-long tradition of passing cultural skills from mother to daughter and aunt to niece. Additionally, because weaving and wearing these skirts is necessary within the local customs and inter-island relationships of the Caroline Islands, women who do not learn these skills are disadvantaged when they return to the FAS.

In partnership with women’s and community-based organizations within the FAS, as well as with support of US-based anthropologists, Habele planned with weavers and craftsmen in both the US and the FAS to create and distribute simple instructions for the fabrication of traditional back-strap looms among migrants in the United States. These instructions were intended to assist FAS migrants in utilizing accessible materials found within the US as substitutes for traditional ones.

Once simple, actionable, and accurate guides were created, Habele intended to use these guides to create looms as a proof of concept, and provide them to mentors in the United States who can teach weaving skills to younger FAS migrants and their daughters.

Habele further intended to develop, publish, and distribute detailed guides for assembly of looms from the published specifications for FAS citizens in the US. It was anticipated this might further entail development of ready-to-assemble kits for those with limited access to tools needed to fabricate looms. In September of 2020, Habele was awarded a grant by Office of Insular Affairs, to implement the project.

Literature and Collection Review

Habele began with a thorough analysis of the limited number of references to the design and use of Caroline Island backstrap looms in published academic studies, books, and online museum and archive collections. In most cases there were brief, paragraph-length mentions of the social and cultural significance of woven skirts situated in larger treatments of the arts and crafts of the Micronesian region. Alternatively, several brief mentions of Carolinian weaving practices and equipment were found in larger studies dealing with looms in a more general regional or global sense.

A very small number of publications were identified that dealt in depth with the skirts produced on Carolinian backstrap looms, but these made little mention of the specific materials and tools required for fabrication, focusing rather on the finished garment and its social context and significance. Two looms were identified in museum collections, as were a handful of peripheral weaving tools, but little context or analysis was provided beyond names and dates of artifact collection.

Community and Returned Peace Corps Input

Habele solicited photographs, drawings, and videos directly from weavers in Yap State, those who have relocated elsewhere within the FSM, migrants who have moved to Guam and Hawaii, as well as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who lived and served in Yap State. Requests were also sent to collectors and anthropologists. These requests resulted in many photos and videos submitted, as well as a few additional leads on relevant literature.

Weaver and Carver Engagement

A master weaver from the Island of Fais, and her husband, a master carver and navigator from the Atoll of Lamotrek who is an adjunct professor at the University of Guam, travelled to Columbia, South Carolina, to serve as technical leads for the project. During the course of their travel and quarantines, Habele contacted additional weavers in the Outer Islands, Yap Proper, Guam, and Hawaii through mail, email, and social media to solicit further design ideas and photographs of specific variables in the fabrication of loom frames and warping boards (used to prepare thread for weaving), which initial reviews identified as important characteristics.

This is the first in a series of posts dealing with Weaving Connections, a project of Habele to sustain and preserve Micronesian backstrap weaving traditions among Island populations who’ve migrated to the United States mainland. More here