Scouring the lists of the missing and dead in the Maui fires, it doesn't take long to see that the Filipino community has been greatly impacted.
"These stories of Filipino community members losing everything just break our hearts. A lot of them came with practically nothing on their backs as immigrants, and now they really have nothing on their backs," said Maui attorney Alfredo Evangelista.
Filipinos began arriving in Hawaiʻi more than a century ago to labor on sugarcane and pineapple plantations.
Today, they account for the second-largest ethnic group on Maui, with nearly 48,000 island residents tracing their roots to the Philippines, 5,000 of them in Lāhainā, which was about 40% of the town’s population before the fire, The Associated Press reports.
Tulong means "help" in the Tagalog and Ilocano languages, and Filipino community leaders are seeking the public's kōkua to support the Tulong for Lahaina Fund. It's coordinated by the Binhi At Ani Filipino Community Center in Kahului.
Grants of $750 are being awarded to those who have lost homes, brick-and-mortar businesses, or immediate family members. There are currently over 300 applicants, Evangelista said.
"Please assist us, we need your help. The members of the Filipino community in Lāhainā may be a little shy to ask for help. They’re still kind of walking around trying to figure out the process of FEMA insurance etc., where to go for help, and they're worried about the jobs," he said.
"Many of them were in the hotel industry. Jobs are gone. Tourism is down. They're trying to open it up, but it's gonna take some time and folks are even saying that this is probably going to be worse than the pandemic," he added.
Evangelista is also the assistant editor of the Fil-Am Voice, a newspaper that serves the Filipino community on the Valley Isle.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Sept. 14, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
