Habele, the educational nonprofit serving Micronesia's remote Outer Islands, has just received a packet of scholarship applications from students living on atolls of Chuuk State.

The eager young scholars are finishing eighth grade at public schools staffed by Peace Corps volunteers on the islands of Ta, Oneop, Lekinioch and Moch in the Lower Mortlocks. They have taken placement tests to attend the prestigious Xavier High School and Saramen Chuuk Academy, but lack the funds to pay the (respective) $120 and $60 monthly tuitions.

Habele is an all-volunteer scholarship granting organization dedicated to promoting educational opportunity and accomplishment in the remote islands of Micronesia. In recent years donors have provided over $6,000 of scholarships to students from Yap State attending boarding schools on Palau. We look forwarding to reviewing the applications and hope that our dedicated base of volunteers and donors will contribute to the future of these bright young students.

As part of Habele’s ongoing Eauripik Public School Library Development Project, the fund will be mailing more books to the Atoll this week.

In addition to textbooks for students in middle school, the shipment also includes a range of books that deal specifically with regional issues of development, gender, culture and diplomacy in Micronesia.



The Habele Outer Island Education Fund is a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to the expansion of educational opportunity and accomplishment in the remote outer islands of Micronesia, a former US Trust Territory in the Central Pacific.

The Fund has created a new Facebook group. Donors and volunteers who have Facebook accounts can join here.

In old media news, both the Saipan Tribune and the Marianas Variety have printed articles about the recent donation of text books and school supplies to the Atoll of Eauripik.

The fiction and literature portion of the donation, boxed up and ready to be mailed.

The Habele Outer Island Education Fund announced today that it mailed over a dozen boxes of school supplies, textbooks and instructional materials to the Atoll of Eauripik in Yap State, Micronesia.

The Atoll of Eauripik is comprised of several small islands surrounding a shallow lagoon and located between the state capitals of Yap Proper and Chuuk lagoon just north of the Equator in the Central Pacific. The remote island receives only two or three visits from a government supply ship during the course of a year. The island is home to roughly three hundred people. Subsistence fishing and agriculture are the foundation of the local economy.

“This collection of books and supplies is part of our effort to support public schools in the most isolated parts of the Pacific,” explained Marc McNamara, a member of Habele’s Board of Directors and a former Peace Corps Volunteer.

“We have communicated with educators on Eauripik and sent them texts that will compliment their efforts, as well as provide community members with recreational reading opportunities.”

In addition to a collection of up to date reference books, the donations include several sets of complete class sets of textbooks so that each child will be able to follow instruction and complete homework assignments with their own book.

“Expanding academic opportunity and promoting educational accomplishment is an essential first step in promoting individual, island, and national sovereignty,” said McNamara. “Through scholarships to private schools and material donations to public schools, Habele is working with the Outer Island Communities to meet this goal.”

In last two years Habele has mailed similar donations to the islands of Ulithi and Fais. The Fund has also awarded nearly $5,000 in scholarships to students from the Outer Islands of Micronesia attending boarding schools in the district capitals.

Reference books and school supplies being packed.

Habele consists of donors and volunteers from throughout the United States and the Pacific. The Fund has no paid employees and is still seeking support for its ongoing public school book drives and scholarships. Visit www.habele.org to learn more.

Habele has received a kind letter of thanks from Vocational Education Teachers on the Atoll of Woleai (also spelled Wooleai). The Fund mailed the school a collection of basic hand tools as part of Habele’s ongoing public school and library support project. Albert Fong explained:

Thank you so much for your support and your interest in our school. Teaching the students how to build and repair the family homes and other buildings here is so important for our lives and the future of these islands…

Mr Fong went on to extend thanks to all Habele donors and volunteers as well as all those Americans who have an interest in the remote atolls of the Caroline Islands (modern day Micronesia).

In addition to being the location of the Neighboring Islands High School, Woleai is the birth place of both Mr. James Naich, Deputy Chief of Mission, and Mr. Dominic R. Maluchmai, First Secretary of the Micronesian Embassy in Washington.

More information on Woleai can be found at:

The Herald Net obituary of Shelly Greer who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer on Woleai with her husband.

The Wikipedia Article on Woleai

The US Department of Interior press release about the journey of a traditional canoe voyage navigated by Mau Piailug.

A Telegraph news article about bones that washed ashore there in 2001.

Habele is a US-based nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing educational opportunities and accomplishment in the remote Outer Islands of Micronesia. Please consider making a donation of materials, time or financial support today.

Habele is an all-volunteer non-profit narrowly focused on promoting educational opportunities and accomplishment in Micronesia. Toward that end we offer the following links to keep our donors and volunteers abreast of developments in the Pacific.

The Economist considers the adoption and development of technology in the third world, and wonders if the "leapfrogging"of cell-phones is anomalous.

…The World Bank concludes that a country's capacity to absorb and benefit from new technology depends on the availability of more basic forms of infrastructure. … It would be great if you could always jump straight to the high-tech solution, as you can with mobile phones. But with technology, as with education, health care and economic development, such short-cuts are rare.

Working with the United States Department of Education and the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, schools in the Federated States are adopting new standards for career and technical education.

Politicians in the Republic of Palau campaign on the promise of lowered salaries for lawmakers.

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s Sub-regional Office for the Pacific Islands (FAO–SAPA) headquarters is holding a workshop covering costal fisher policy issues.

Small town paper in California runs article on the islands of Yap.

Learn more about Habele's Outer Island library development and scholarship programs at Habele.org

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.