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.

The Habele Outer Island Education Fund has released initial accounting numbers for fiscal year 2007. According to Habele Treasurer Tom Lutte, more than 90 cents of each dollar spent went directly to K-12 scholarships and library development in the Outer Islands of Micronesia.

One of the keys to Habele’s efficiency is the fact that we have no paid employees explained Lutte. The Fund spent roughly $6,300 in FY 2007. The breakdown by category was:

58% - Scholarships
33% - Library Development
5% - Domestic Postage & Printing
4% - Fees and Dues

The Fund was able to use this money to finance two complete scholarships (tuition, room, and board) to the prestigious Bethania High School in Palau for low-income students on Ulithi. Habele also made ten shipments of books and school supplies to public school libraries in the islands.

It is frustrating that we had to pay money to the state in fees and that we have unavoidable fixed costs like website hosting and our PO Box, noted Neil Mellen, President, but we are lucky that so many donors give time and talent - the content of our beautiful website, habele.org, is a great example of such a donation.

A more detailed analysis of these figures will be included in the 2007 Annual Report, which will be released by the Habele Board of Directors in early January 2008.

Habele is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of educational opportunities and accomplishment in the remote Outer Islands of Micronesia. Visit habele.org to learn more.

December 8th 2007 | Covina California

A group of students at Covina High School in California are mailing off an early Christmas Gift to fellow pupils in the Central Pacific nation of Micronesia. The gift, a collection of lightly-used text books, has been assembled as a donation for a public school on the remote Atoll of Ulithi, located 360 miles southwest of the American territory of Guam.

”The service club Interact worked with our campus library to compile the donation from books that we no longer had any use for” explained Mr. Sean Fox, the Covina High teacher who helped to coordinate the donation.

“I was familiar with the islands, once part of the United States' Trust Territory, as the result of stories I heard from one of my own former teachers, Jim Boykin.”

The more than one dozen boxes full of books are now enroute to the remote Outer Islands High School (OIHS) which is attended by students from the islands of Falalop, Mogmog, Federai, Asor and Fais in the state of Yap. This donation, and other similar projects, is part of the effort of the Habele Outer Island Education Fund to promote educational opportunity and advancement in Micronesia.

“I came across Habele on the Internet when researching stories about my former mentor Jim Boykin,” Fox explains, “I was really impressed that a group of former Peace Corps volunteers had set up a charity to serve these tiny and often-overlooked islands. I thought about how I might be able to pitch in and remembered that our school always seemed to have stacks of old textbooks lying around.”

Habele, a nonprofit incorporated in the State of South Carolina, awards performance-based scholarships to high school students in Micronesia in addition to marshalling donations of books and school supplies.

“This is a great chance for students in the US to connect with and help out their under-resourced peers in the Federated States of Micronesia” said Tom Lutte, Habele’s Treasurer and a former Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Micronesia. “The OIHS teachers and students make do with very limited materials, often with a single book for three or four students to share. These full classroom sets of texts will make a big impact.

Anyone interested in helping to pay for the cost of shipping the books to Micronesia is encouraged to visit www.habele.org and make a donation.

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A recent email to Habele explains:

I just saw your website and wanted to say thank you for all you are doing for the kids on the outer islands. I am from Eauripik and now reside in Washington state and it is good to know that people are doing good things for the kids on the islands. I enjoyed looking at the pictures you have on the website.

I will make a donation to your organization in the future.

Thanks again,
David H.

Habele wants to extend its to thanks to David for his kinds words, as well as to all the other generous Micronesians living in the United States who are eager to to extend the opportunities of education to their fellow islanders. Sa chigchig!

Habele volunteers from a public high school in Upland California continue to gather books for students at the Outer Island High School in Yap State, Micronesia. The most recent shipment included text books for Chemistry 1, Economics, U.S. Government, AP Biology, and Human Biology, as well as basic classroom materials such as pens, pencils, and notebooks.

The United States Postal Service has announced the resumption of domestic postal rates for addresses in the Northern Pacific.

Pacific Magazine reports that the United States Congress has passed Amendments to the Compact of Free Association. The House Bill, HR 2705, can be viewed here. Among the highlights:

The U.S. Agency for International Development (US AID) will take the role formerly held by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in providing post disaster relief to Micronesia and other freely associated states.

The Amendment also clarify the eligibility of citizens of Freely Associated States (FAS) residing in states or territories to receive the legal assistance provided by the Legal Services Corporation.

Pohnpei is now home to an office of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission intended to monitor and conserve critically-low levels of highly migratory fish stocks in the high seas of the Pacific.

Palauan politician and Governor Benigno R. Fitial publicly lamented the split of former trust territory islands.


The 8th Annual Western Micronesia Chief Executive Summit is being held in Saipan. Discussions are focused on privatization, alternative energy, and conservation.

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 Kaselehlie Press reports on the tensions of federalism embodied in an ongoing dispute over government oil contracts between state and national law makers in the FSM

Yokwe.net has a detailed article explaining the push among some US House Members to reinstate certain Federal benefits to citizens of the Freely Associated States (FAS). As the article explains, these states, including the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshalls, enjoy a specially relationship with the following characteristics:

• The Compact of Free Association established these nations as sovereign States responsible for their own foreign policies. However, the FAS remain dependent upon the United States for military protection and economic assistance.

• Under the Compact, the United States has the right to reject the strategic use of, or military access to, the FAS by other countries. This right is often referred to as the ``right of strategic denial.'' In addition, the U.S. may block FAS Government policies that it deems inconsistent with its duty to defend the FAS, which is referred to as the ``defense veto.'' The Compact also states that the United States has exclusive military base rights in the FAS.

• In exchange for these prerogatives, the U.S. is required to support the FAS economically, with the goal of producing self-sufficiency, and FAS citizens are allowed free entry into the United States as non-immigrants for the purposes of education, medical treatment, and employment. Because of this ability to travel within the United States as a non-immigrant, many FAS citizens have since migrated to the State of Hawaii.

Father Francis Hezel of the Micronesian Seminar editorializes about reform in Chuuk State

In Habele organization news, donors from Southern California continue to provide Head Start and Primary Schools on Falalop Ulithi with education toys and games. Another box is being mailed sometime this week.



Also, donors and volunteers are encourage to contact board members with comments and feedback they would like to be considered at the upcoming Habele Board of Directors meeting, set to convene in Columbia, South Carolina in mid-November.

Habele is a an all-volunteer not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting educational opportunities and accomplishment in the remote islands and atolls of the Central Caroline Islands, commonly known as Micronesia

Habele is sending a collection of basic hand tools to the vocational education teachers working at the Neighboring Island High School on the Atoll of Woleai.

"Woleai is a remote island and basic supplies are hard to come by" explained Mr. Alex Sidles, Secretary of the Habele Board of Directors. "This is particularly true of tools required for the vocational programs. Frustratingly, we have found that the most remote schools tend to be the most under-resourced.

The high school on the island of Falalop, Woleai serves students from all the islands in that Atoll, as well as functioning as a boarding school for pupils from the neighboring Atolls of Eauripik, Ifaluk, Lamotrek, Faraulep, as well as the island of Satawal.

Composite photo of the Atoll of Woleai. Falalop is the island on the right with the unimproved airstrip. Photo Copyright Coral Reef Research Foundation. (Click here for a detailed map of Yap State).

Habele is a nonprofit organization consisting of former Peace Corps Volunteers, school teachers, private donors, and other volunteers working to promote educational opportunities and accomplishment in the remote Outer Islands of Micronesia. Visit www.habele.org to learn more.