Matson, Habele keep books flowing to Yap’s Youngest Readers

“Young Island Readers” is a book-a-month donation program that provides children from birth to age five a new age appropriate each and every month.

A generous investment from the Matson Foundation will cover the cost of providing over 400 such books to children across Yap State this coming January and February.

The Young Island Readers process is simple. When a child is born in Yap State, the mother is provided a sign-up form at the hospital. She writes the child’s name and the post office mailing box their family uses. If she lives in the Outer Islands she indicates on which Atoll or Island they reside.

Sign up forms are offered again when a child is baptized or inoculated, ensuring newborns don’t slip through the cracks. These sign-up forms are collected by students at Yap Catholic High School, where the details are entered into a book ordering system. Mothers or other family members may also obtain forms directly from the Yap Catholic High School as well as submit completed forms there. They can also sign up online at www.habele.org/yir.

Monthly, each enrolled child is sent a new book. The specific title is based on their age and phase of development. The books, sent at USPS media mail rates, arrive individually wrapped and addressed to the child. Those going to children in the Outer Islands are received by the Neighboring Island Coordinators at the Yap State Department of Education. The books headed to children in the Outer Islands make the last leg of the journey on either the state field trip vessel or aboard a Pacific Missionary Airline flight.

The backbone of Young Island Readers is Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL). The Imagination Library was founded and created by songwriter, musician, actress, author and business-woman, Dolly Parton, in her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee in 1996. She envisioned a community-based program providing children with free, home-delivered books from birth to their 5th birthday.

Habele is the “local champion” or on-the-ground partner for DPIL in Micronesia. Established by former Peace Corps Volunteers, Habele is a US nonprofit, invested in the future and potential of Micronesian students since 2006. Though the program is both effective and efficient, there are still ongoing costs borne by Habele. A generous donation from the Matson Foundation in late 2022 will help with that.

Matson’s generous donation to Habele will cover all the costs for Young Island Reader books mailed in January and February of 2023,” explained Neil Mellen, founder of Habele. “We are grateful for Matson’s continued support of our -and others’- work in Micronesia and across the Pacific in addressing community needs.”

McREL Staff Donate Books to Remote Micronesian Readers

Staff at McREL International, a non-profit educational research organization, have teamed up with Habele to provide books for school libraries in Yap State, Micronesia.

Halley Halford, the Support Specialist at the McREL International office in Hawaii, spearheaded the book drive. She recruited remote peers as well as those at the Hawaii and Denver offices to gather specific book genres requested by the teachers and librarians of the Micronesia islands. Tinsley Long, the Support Specialist at the McREL International Denver office, helped organize the donations coming in from staff at that site.

McREL International provides effective guidance and training for teachers and education leaders in the U.S. and across the pacific including American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, and Hawaii. Habele, which was established by former Peace Corps Volunteers, many of whom served as school librarians, provided postage and routing for the books.

“With our long-standing commitment to supporting educators throughout the Pacific, we were immediately drawn to Habele’s mission,” said Bryan Goodwin, the CEO of McREL International, a Denver-based capacity-building organization that partners with Pacific school systems via its Honolulu, Saipan, and Palau offices. “Every child, regardless of where they live, deserves top-quality instruction and materials, but financing and logistics can make that hard. Habele’s ability to literally go the extra miles to get these books where they’re needed is truly inspiring.”

The boxes are headed to school-based community libraries on Eauripik, Fais and Lamotrek. Young readers on these small and isolated islands are challenged by their limited access to reading and reference materials, with many of the Outer Islands only seeing a few brief visits each year from a state supply ship.

“Because of our islands’ unfortunate location, in the path of violent weather conditions, many times school books get wet and ruined,” explained Yap State Department of Education’s Romanes Yarofaichie. “Habele book donations have helped alleviate the problem with the shortage of books as the result of the earlier mentioned violent weather conditions. Isolated schools that continue to get donations from you folks out there continue to have a good number of books, esp. references, at their small libraries. Your donations surely help our students want to visit the school library to read and do research!””

“New and gently used books are purchased or gathered and sent to Micronesian educators all across the FSM who make requests to Habele,” explained Neil Mellen, Habele’s Founder. “We try to make the process simple for those who are looking to help.”

Gathering books –or donating to pay the cost of sending books– is one of the simplest way volunteers in the United States support Habele. In addition to boxed donations for school libraries, Habele’s Young Island Readers provides individual book donations to newborns through their fifth birthday.

Kind words from Eauripik School for book donations

Months ago, Habele’s volunteers gathered books for the students and educators on the small isolated Atoll of Eauripik in Yap State, Micronesia. Habele donors contributed to have them sent.

Book donations for Micronesia (FSM) from Habele, a nonprofit established by former Peace Corps Volunteers.

The books made it Guam, then south to Yap Proper, and finally all the way to Eauripik aboard the small state-owned field trip ship. A teacher who took the ship back into Yap relays:

I would like to take this opportunity to extend our most sincere appreciation and million thanks to the people who donated to us the books and all the supports that sent from that part of the world and we will always cherish your kindness and look forward to continue communicating with you and all the supporters. Till then we remain with the highest esteem.

-Carlos Mailmog, Eauripik Community School
Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)

Book donations for Micronesia (FSM) from Habele, a nonprofit established by former Peace Corps Volunteers.

Sending books to schools and school-based libraries in Micronesia is simple. Learn more here.

Books headed to schools on Woleai, Fais and Eauripik

Schools across Micronesia need books for classrooms and school-based libraries. Habele pairs individuals and groups who have books with educators in the FSM who are seeking them. We’ll even pay the postage!

Micronesian schools make specific requests for books to Habele, most often elementary or high school level reading books. Volunteers, donors and other friends of Habele gather and box the books. Habele pairs requests with donations and provides postage and paperwork for the book donor to simply drop the boxes off at a post office. The process is easy.

Thus far in January, Habele volunteers have gathered, donated and sent:

  • 4 boxes of elementary school aged reading books for Woleai Atoll
  • 1 box of elementary school aged reading books for Fais Island
  • 4 boxes of early childhood aged reading books for Eauripik Island

In addition to donations for schools and school-based libraries, Habele also provides books directly to young children on Yap.

Young Island Readers offers all children born in Yap the opportunity to receive one new, age-appropriate, book through the mail each month until their fifth birthday.

Young Island Readers is made possible by the Dollywood Foundation’s Imagination Library which partners with local nonprofits to provide age-appropriate books every month to children up to age five. Habele also collaborates with the Yap State Hospital and Yap Catholic High School to ensure all newborns are signed up. Books are sent, individually wrapped and addresses, through USPS Media Mail.

Established by former Peace Corps Volunteers, Habele is a 501(3) nonprofit supporting Micronesian students.

Thousandth Book Mailed in Innovative Yap Literacy Program

A new age-appropriate book, delivered by mail to the family’s post office box, from birth until a child’s fifth birthday.

That was the ambitious plan announced by Habele in the fall of 2020, kicking off “Young Island Readers” in Yap. The program aims to place books in the hands of young children where they spend most of their time: at home in the village.

Every participating child will enter first grade with sixty books of their very own. They will grow up playing with, listening to, and reading books. That is made possible through a partnership between Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the US nonprofit Habele.

This month the 1,000th book was mailed, marking a major milestone in the unprecedented effort to promote literacy at a population level in a Micronesian state.

The process is simple. When a child is born on Yap, the mother is provided a sign-up form at the hospital. She writes the child’s name and the post office mailing box their family uses. Forms are often provided again when a child is baptized, ensuring newborns don’t slip through the cracks. These forms are collected by students at Yap Catholic High School, where the details are entered into a book ordering system.

Monthly, each child is sent a new book, based on their age and phase of development. The books, sent at USPS media mail rates, arrive individually wrapped and addressed to the child.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL) is a community-based program providing children with free, home-delivered books from birth to their 5th birthday. The Imagination Library was founded and created by American songwriter, musician, actress, author and business-woman, Dolly Parton, in her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee in 1996. The home library encourages reading at home between parents, caregivers, grandparents, siblings and the child.

Habele is the local champion -or “partner”- for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Micronesia. Established by former Peace Corps Volunteers, Habele is a US-based nonprofit, serving students and schools across the FSM since 2006.

Habele pre-funded the first cohort’s books for the full five years. “We wanted to ensure our promises to these budding young readers and their families would be kept” explained Habele founder Neil Mellen, who served as an elementary school librarian in Yap State while in the Peace Corps.

The impetus for Young Island Readers came from Stella H Talgumai, a mother and Early Childhood Education teacher. She met with Habele in Yap several years ago to discuss the nonprofit’s ongoing donations of books to school-based libraries. Talgumai, noted how her own child and students immediately ran toward books once they reached the local ECE center. She suggested tapping into that enthusiasm and natural curiosity by sending books directly to individual families.

Research shows that very early access to books, particularly at home, is a tremendous factor in reading interest and ability once a child is in elementary school. It has been found that books at home are a better predictor of reading skills later in life than are levels of family wealth or parental educational attainment. Young Island Readers offers a very direct, equitable, and cost-efficient means to pursue that goal of widespread early access.

“Our primary goal is to imbue a lifelong love of learning across a generation of children,” explained Mellen. “In doing so we also hope to showcase how US-FSM grassroots development partnerships can directly serve local individual needs in an equitable and efficient manner, without the need for costly overhead. Our immediate aim is to sustain the work and extend it to the Outer Islands.”

Targeted college book donations highlight US-Palau bonds

A group of off-duty US Army soldiers in Hawaii have teamed up with professors and students at two American universities to provide targeted donations of textbooks for Dr. Kris Kitalong’s students at Palau Community College in the Republic of Palau. Dr. Kitalong is a native of Palau, having taught at the College for many years. He also serves as Vice President at Palau Community College’s Cooperative Research Extension.

Professors and students at Brigham Young University Hawaii and Northern Arizona University were eager to help. Dr. Naomi Lee, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Northern Arizona University recruited students and research assistants to locate and pack texts that Dr. Kitalong and his students needed. Kikiana Hurwitz, University Laboratory Manager and instructor in Biochemistry and Biology at BYU Hawaii, also organized volunteers among her students to find and box books.

Coordination for the donation came from Lt Colonel John Yoshimori and several of his peers in the US Army. Their unit, Task Force Oceania, was established to provide continuous support in the Pacific Island countries located in Oceania, assist U.S. embassies as needed, and reinforce lasting and meaningful relationships in the region. The soldiers volunteered their time after work hours to help pull the book donation together.


A US-based nonprofit, established by former Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Palau and neighboring Micronesia, pitched in to coverer the costs of postage with funds donated by former Peace Corps volunteers and other individual Americans.

“Knowledge is power!  We must provide the next generation opportunities to improve ones self, to improve today for a better tomorrow,” explained John Yoshimori of Aiea. “It is my kuliana “responsibility” to ensure that the world I was born in is a better place for not just my children, but the children of the world.  We all have to malama pono “take care” of each other if we are to achieve this vision.”

Over the last six months more than a hundred boxes of books, totaling over three thousand pounds, have been gathered by John and other Habele volunteers for public schools across Palau and Micronesia.


“This is a great, collaborative project,” explained Neil Mellen, founder of the US nonprofit Habele. Educators in Palau, University professors, staff and students in Arizona and Hawaii, and individual volunteers throughout working to pair resources with specific locally stated needs. It is exciting to see how the long standing and historic partnership between the US and Palau works on such a personal, individual level.”

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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!

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 in 90 Seconds

Habele serves students and schools across Micronesia.
A nonprofit created by former Peace Corps Volunteers, Habele supports island students by:

Scholarships. Habele awards needs-based scholarships to students at Micronesia’s top rated private elementary and high schools.

Books. Habele donates books to school libraries across the Federated States, and mails books directly to children before they enter Kindergarten.

Robotics. Habele equips, trains and organizes robotics teams at high schools in all four Micronesian states.

Traditional Skills. Habele provides carvers, weavers and other traditional craftsmen with specialty tools, supporting these mentors as they preserve cultural skills.

Habele is a network of Americans and Micronesians who share the belief that each island child –no matter how isolated– deserves the chance to reach their full potential. These locally-driven programs prepare Micronesian children to thrive in their villages and beyond the reef.

If you believe in the potential of children in the remote islands of the western Pacific, join us!

Donated Library Books Head from Pearl Harbor to Remote Micronesian Atoll

Left to right: John Yoshimori, Habele Volunteer; Denise Sumida the Pearl Harbor Elementary School Librarian; and Mr. Glenn Agusen, SSC office assistant.

Hundreds of small islands are scattered across the vast Western Pacific Ocean. They are home to some of the most remote students on the planet.

Diverse in culture and language, these far-flung picturesque islands 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.

Schools across Micronesia need books for their school-based libraries, which serve both students and members of the community at large. The need is especially great in the remote outer islands which are strung between the larger population centers and state capitals. Staff and students at Pearl Harbor Elementary School resolved to help.

Eauripik is one such atoll, in the Micronesian State of Yap. Eauripik is home to 114 people living on less than a tenth of a square mile of land. The atoll is visited by cargo ships only a few times a year. It lies 390 milies southeast of Yap Proper and 480 miles south of the US Territory of Guam. Despite its small size and isolation, the Island has a reputation within Micronesia for having hardworking, academically minded people. Tiny Eauripik was home to the nation’s second president, the first native born Micronesian Catholic priest, and one of the nation’s most renowned ship captains.

The Pearl Harbor Elementary School, on Moanalua Ridge near Pearl Harbor, has donated books to help the readers of Eauripik. In November they began working with John Yoshimori, a volunteer with the nonprofit “Habele.”

Forty-six boxes of high quality, age appropriate, used books were packed for donation. Habele, a nonprofit established by former Peace Corps who taught in Micronesian public schools, coordinated the donation with educators on Eauripik and Pam Legdesog, Director of the Yap State Department of Education.

For this and other donations, Habele pairs individuals and groups who have books with educators in the FSM who are seeking them. Donors simple pack their box, weigh and measure the box, and send Habele the weight and dimensions. Habele then sends the donor an envelope with pre-paid postage, mailing labels, and completed customs paperwork. Finally, donors apply the stickers and take the box their local post office.

“In curating our school library and classroom collections, we had books we no longer needed but which would be of great value and interest to students and educators who might not have the resources we enjoy” explained Denise Sumida the Pearl Harbor Elementary School Librarian. “We were thrilled to be able to share these with a school in Micronesia where the books will be read and enjoyed”