Kids shrieked across the lawn with balloon toys and aunties sat together to catch up at a back to school Family Fun Day at Wailuku’s Iao Congregational Church Saturday in Maui.
The event provided Maui’s Micronesian families with free back to school materials, including backpacks, pencils, notebooks, crayons, shoes and milk formulas. Roots Reborn and Voices of Micronesia of Maui hosted the event. Roots Reborn is a nonprofit organization that serves migrants and immigrants on Maui. Organizations like Pacific Gateway Center, and Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center held pop-ups to offer free resources.
Anndionne Selestin, who is Pohnpeian, planned and MC’d the event with her co-worker Sue-Ellen William. As the first Micronesian person working at Roots, Selestin hoped Family Fun Day would bring Maui’s COFA community together.
Maui’s COFA community is composed of people from different islands across Micronesia. COFA, the Compact of Free Association, is an agreement that allows citizens from the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federal States of Micronesia to live and work in the United States in exchange for military control of certain land and waters.
Selestin was thrilled that people from many Micronesian islands, including the Pohnpeian, Chuukese, Kosraen and Marshallese, Yapese communities all joined. Selestin expected 50 kids, prepared 100 backpacks just in case, and distributed them all.
“It feels good,” Selestin said. “I know there’s a lot of us on the island, but we’re all in our own corner doing our own thing. For all of us to come up, enjoy, celebrate one another, I thought that was really awesome.”
While she still feels like her voice is not heard, people from different islands are coming together, and there are many different organizations like the Voice of Micronesia and Roots Reborn forming that make her hopeful.
“I believe the more people that get together to help, then our voice will grow faster.”
Story by Yiming Fu
This article was found on msn.com.