The Filipino community is pulling together to support those affected by the Maui wildfires.
The Maui Filipino Chamber of Commerce is hosting a resource fair Saturday to bring important recovery information to those who have lost loved ones, residences and businesses.
Services for mail, immigration, farming and housing will be available. The Philippine Consulate of Honolulu will be available from Friday to Sunday to provide services relating to passport replacements. Federal, state and county agencies will be on hand alongside a group of interpreters.
Event chair Kit Zulueta Furukawa said permanent housing and financial assistance are the highest priorities.
“They still have bills they need to pay, they still have expenses, they still need to eat… And we want to address that really quickly,” Furukawa said. “We have some grant applications going on, we are fundraising. If all goes well, if we do get approved, we want to distribute money at the fair. We're really crossing our fingers for that.”
The resource fair will also provide a location for emotional healing, Furukawa said. Canned goods and vegetables used in Filipino cooking and plants for those who enjoy gardening will be distributed at the fair.
“Talk story” tables will also be set up for victims to vent, share stories, or discuss recovery options.
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.
"It's quite hard to find silver linings at this time. But that's kind of our message, just to be there and remind them that they're not forgotten. We want to kind of promote resilience and find some balance between swift action and sensitivity," Furukawa said.
The Hawak Kamay Filipino Resource Fair runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sept. 23 at the Lāhainā Civic Center.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Sept. 18, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
