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.

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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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.”

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”