Reflections, Three Months After the Fires

From Michelle Kaʻuhane, HCF senior vice president and chief impact officer

Illustration by Kelsie Dayna

In late September, when Lahaina families began returning to what was left of their homes, the ‘āina (land, earth) they came back to was almost unrecognizable.

As people walked through their charred homes—bundled in head-to-toe personal protective equipment—they also began to run into their neighbors. One resident shared that it was the first time they had seen folks who they used to connect with every day. They exchanged questions: “How’s your mother doing? Where are you guys living now?” It made me think: The structures may be gone, but the community is still here.

It was a powerful reminder. The heart and soul of Lahaina lives through the people. No fire, no hurricane, no natural disaster, can take that from us.

In the first weeks of HCF’s disaster response, our main priority was rapid relief. We activated our Maui Strong Fund, committed to not collecting an administrative fee on donations, and leveraged our existing partnerships and the principles of trust-based philanthropy to get money out the door quickly and efficiently. The focus was on core, immediate necessities: food, water, shelter, medical care, and other essential services.

Now, at the three-month mark, we’re able to move into a coordinated network approach, strategizing with partners who are focused on Maui—county, state, and federal government agencies; nonprofits; local business; community members, and more—about how to make lasting impact with the Maui Strong Fund dollars that have been so generously donated here in Hawai‘i and from across the world.

Our approach is to ensure that our energy and philanthropic resources can satisfy unmet needs, provide solutions to challenges, and ensure that some Maui Strong Fund dollars will be available years from now when new needs continue to arise in the long process of recovery. All this, while we also understand that community needs to be at the helm when it’s time to make big decisions. And we know that they can only do that when their lives are stable—and have had the time to rest and grieve.

As a community foundation, we approach our grantmaking as an intermediary, funding nonprofits on the ground that are working side-by-side with the communities they serve. To date, we’ve distributed more than $32 million in Maui Strong funds across a broad spectrum of needs, including:

• Animal Welfare - $665,000
• Baby and Maternal Care - $520,000
• Childcare - $250,000
• Children and Family - $1.8M
• Communications, Logistics, and Transportation - $1.3M
• Direct Financial Assistance - $10M
• Food and Supplies - $2.2M
• Health Care - $2.8M
• Immigrant Services - $506,500
• Lodging and Shelter - $7.4M
• Mental Health and Grief Counseling - $668,500
• Workforce Development - $2.3M
• Multi-Faceted (offering support in several of these areas) $2.1M

Rebuilding will take time, and it’s going to take patience. And, when the moment comes to put our hands in the soil, when it’s time to bring Lahaina back to life, I’m excited for what could be a unique opportunity for Maui to show all of us in Hawai‘i how we can come back from darkness and work through a process together with outcomes that can honor our ancestors, our history, our natural resources, and our diverse communities. We all know, it’s in the hardest of times that we see the true essence of aloha, that we lean into it, and we support one another.

We want to mahalo all of you for being a part of this effort. Your energy and support is what Maui needs right now.

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