Per request: books for young readers in Maap, Yap

Eager young readers at the Maap Early Childhood Education Center in the northeast of Yap have received the first of three boxes of books donated by Habele.

A US nonprofit, Habele was established by former Peace Corps Volunteers who served -many of them as library volunteers- in Micronesia. Habele provides donations of books, as well as tuition scholarships, tools for traditional craftsmen, and equipment for high school-based robotics across the Federated States.

In February, Leah Torwan, an early childhood teacher in Maap reached out to Habele.

Torwan explained that her own two-year old daughter was signed up for Young Island Readers, Habele’s direct book-a-month program for children birth through five years of age. She had been bringing those books, sent for her daughter’s use at home, to the center owing to the lack of books.

“I’m not sure about the other ECEs but our center lacks books,” relayed Torwan. “We have under 15 books; old and mostly damaged. The children who’ve enrolled since previous years are getting tired of the same stories being read over and over.”

At that time Habele sent three boxes, totaling 77 lbs of age-appropriate books for the children to read at the Maap ECE center. Owing to the complications mail service to Micronesia has recently endured, the first of the three boxes only reached Yap this week.

Year to date, Habele has provided 25 boxes of books to school-based libraries and early child education centers across Micronesia. In the same period, Habele’s Young Island Readers has provided a further 1,346 books directly to children under the age of five years. Last year 81 boxes for schools and centers, as well as a further 2,222 individual books sent directly to young children, were donated.

“As individual Americans with personal ties to Micronesia, we who volunteer, donate, and organize the work of Habele are eager to help,” explained Neil Mellen, Habele’s Executive Director. “We are grateful for the opportunity to support hard working parents and educators such as Leah Torwan, who are themselves the ones expanding children’s horizons through reading.”

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”