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.

Micronesian Looms: Weaving Connections in the US (2)

This is the second 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

Cataloging of Materials and Equipment

Habele and our technical leads began by listing all the items needed to weave as well as each item’s sub-components. After examining historic and contemporary English naming conventions used for loom weaving, we selected preferred and secondary English translations for each item and developed a taxonomy for all the equipment and materials. We also settled on preferred spelling for each item in the three distinct Austronesian languages of Ulithian, Woleaian, and Satawalese.

Item by item, we matched photographs and sketches we had gathered, and further solicited and sought additional photos and specimens. We began the process of identifying which variations were most common, and which parts and components would be most difficult to obtain (or fabricate) among our intended target audience of FSM migrants in the mainland United States.

Finally, we considered and systematized the place-based differences between Ulithian, Woleaian and Satawalese weaving, most notably in the configuration of the warping board pegs, and considered what, if any, design patterns and decisions could account for these variations in a simple and standardized way.

This is the second 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