Last week Habele announced the start of a book drive for the remote Atoll of Eauripik in Yap State, Micronesia.

The Fund’s Directors had been working with donors to develop a comprehensive library development plan for that community and publicly announced details of the effort in mid-January to gather further support. Donations of school supplies, textbooks, literature and reference materials have poured in, as well monetary donations to support the cost of postage and to buy more books. Checks have arrived in the last week from Southern and Central Califorina, and books have been sent from Northern Virgina and South Carolina.

In the coming weeks Habele’s directors will continue to oversee the efforts, working with volunteers at schools and service organizations in the US to gather and purchase more books. Those interested in helping in the project, or donating to the Habele's scholarship program, are encouraged to visit habele.org and learn more.

Habele is excited to announce the start of a book drive for the island of Eauripik! We are looking to gather donations of fiction, nonfiction and textbooks to help fully stock the community library housed at the Eauripik Community School (pictured).

Working with donors in North Carolina and Texas, the Board of Directors has formulated a three-stage plan to ship books to the remote atoll.

Through this library project the Fund seeks to:

1. Provide a core set of reference and nonfiction books that will support and inform classroom instruction in English, math and the sciences.

2. Provide classroom teachers with class sets of textbooks and basic supplies so that each child will be able to follow instruction and complete homework assignments with their own textbook.

3. Provide both students and community members a range of general nonfiction and Oceania-related books for recreational reading.

Habele has already received donations from volunteers in Northern California (pictured) and is working to coordinate a textbook drive with college students in New Jersey. If you are interested in sending books, coordinating donations, or helping to pay the postage to deliver these books visit habele.org and look to the right hand tool bar for the Fund's contact information.

Working to keep Habele donors and volunteers abreast of events in the Pacific, we offer these links to two recently released publications.

Is That the Best You Can Do? A Tale of Two Micronesian Economies
Father Francis Hezel
…Hezel reviews the history of development initiatives in the FSM and RMI. In early territorial days, funds were limited and little in the way of development was accomplished. Later, funding was dramatically increased, and conventional approaches were implemented. Investment in human resources was followed by a large push in infrastructure improvements. The overall results were disappointing, and the islands became heavily dependent on the United States.

Report to the US Congress on the Compact of Free Association with the FSM and RMI
President of the United States
The government of the FSM has not yet developed indigenous capacity to generate and disseminate macroeconomic information and advice. Even basic statistics on the various components of the economy, the tax base, labor force, employment, wages and salaries, pensions and other commonly followed factors are not routinely compiled unless such activities are undertaken by outside entities…

Habele donors and volunteers are reminded to keep an eye on their post boxes for the 2007 Annual Report which will be mailed sometime this week.

The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is an all-volunteer not-for-profit organization dedicated to expanding educational opportunities and accomplishment in the remote Outer Islands of Micronesia.

The Board of Directors of the Habele Outer Island Education Fund is proud to announce the publication of its 2007 Annual Report. The report highlights a wide range of accomplishments from library development and school donations to the awarding of tuition scholarships.

An electronic version of the report is now available from the downloads page of the Habele website. Hard copies will be mailed to Habele donors and volunteers in the coming days.

The Fund, incorporated in 2006, is an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of educational opportunities and accomplishment in the remote Outer Islands of Micronesia.

Also of interest to Habele volunteers is a letter received by the Fund several days ago from a staff member at the Head Start Center on Falalop, Ulithi. Habele has been sending donations of school materials and toys to the center and Mrs. Andresina Letalim was kind enough to send us her thanks.