The September 11th attack
Terrorism relief pours in while needs at home grow
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer
As Hawai'i residents dug deep into their pockets to help the country's victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the state's charitable-giving community began to worry about growing needs in their own back yard.
Catholic Charities helps thousands of Hawai'i children every year, like Azysalyn Lee-Wai, 7, in the Maili Land transitional shelter.
Courtesy Victoria Suyat, Catholic Charities |
"But I hope the community recognizes that their Aloha United Way gifts are important for our own community. It's very clear the local economy is going to suffer a major hit" because of a slowdown in tourism and possible changes in the makeup of the military community here, he said.
Even as charitable heavy hitters such as Bank of Hawai'i, First Hawaiian Bank and Hawaiian Electric pledged to maintain or increase local giving — in addition to their contributions for Mainland relief efforts — Hawai'i service agencies warned that local needs have begun to build. Calls to ASK-AUW (formerly ASK-2000) were up so dramatically in the wake of the attacks that the agency doubled the number of volunteers staffing the phones from three to six last week.
"We can already see there are going to be layoffs locally, and that always increases stress," said lawyer Gary Slovin, volunteer chairman for this year's Aloha United Way campaign that began barely a week before the terrorist attacks.
While the early AUW "Pace-Setter" campaign is "on goal," Slovin said, the annual fund-raising that provides more than $13 million to 65 local service agencies will try to get the message out that "our community is likely to be more affected than others."
Irving Lauber, president and CEO of Aloha United Way,said he was highly encouraged late last week when many medium and small Hawai'i businesses pledged to increase their corporate gifts above what they gave last year. "This is more than we asked them to give. That's very positive," Lauber said.
But he also was concerned.
"There are many people in our community who are a couple of paychecks away from being homeless," he said. "We can anticipate that if the tourist drop is at all lengthy, there are going to be some serious impacts."
Providing hope
Catholic Charities staff members Lynn Koga, left, Victoria Suyat, center, and Sister Earnest Chung sort through donations.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser |
"In those times, people turn to drugs and alcohol out of despair. They become hopeless, and these are people who generally have hope. It's agencies like Catholic Charities that have to be there to make the difference for people.
"We call ourselves a community of hope, and now more than ever we need to provide the hope."
At the Waikiki Health Center, which emphasizes care for runaway teenagers, the medically needy elderly and a many uninsured patients, the Rev. Frank Chong expects the needs to rise by as much as 20 percent.
"Already funding has been very difficult this year, and our organization has been struggling to keep our numbers in the black, but we're running in the red," said Chong, president of the health center that serves a vulnerable and fragile segment of the population.
"Our community has always been very generous, and they dig down pretty deep, but I don't think any of us anticipated what the downturn would be locally. But 48 hours later, hotels are empty and they're cutting airline flights."
Sixty percent of the center's 7,500 patient visits each year are from patients without health insurance. "But eventually we'll see even more who won't have health insurance, or won't be working, or can't afford to pay for their COBRA," Chong said.
"In general our community safety nets are going to be stretched pretty heavily."
The Red Cross knows that first-hand. As the Hawai'i chapter spearheaded a drive that has raised more than $586,000 and dispatched three workers to front-line relief efforts in New York, the organization's staff began considering local needs.
Last year the state chapter of the Red Cross helped survivors of 127 local disasters, mostly single-family home fires, with shelter, food and other care. "And we're in the middle of hurricane season as well," communications manager Jocelyn Collado pointed out.
Lots of helping hands
Kawai Mar gets her blood pressure checked at the Waikiki Health Center, which handles 7,500 patient visits a year.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser |
"Even when people were really hurting," Taketa said, "they understood the importance of supporting the local community."
But the helping agencies are going to be challenged far more than ever, says Hawai'i's social service community. Child and Family Service, which assists 40,000 people a year, has begun planning to meet even greater needs should military action begin.
"We're trying to look at the broad community impact," said director of development Gratia Bone. "What kind of social services would the community need? We want to be able to work in partnership with the state and other agencies to handle the impact of loved ones, fathers, and even mothers, going off to war."
More lose welfare benefits
Complicating all of this is the anticipated loss of welfare benefits to 818 families scheduled to come off government assistance rolls beginning Nov. 30. By April of next year, it will have grown to 2,032 families losing benefits under the welfare reform timetable set five years ago by the federal government.
Susan Chandler, director of the state Department of Human Services, said the state will give a $200-a-month supplement to 1,169 of these families in which all qualified adults are employed. But that will leave another 863 without benefits except for food stamps and, possibly, Medicaid.
"The stipend is to help support the working poor," said Patricia Murakami, administrator of the benefit, employment and support services division of DHS. "These are the fragile families that have been with us and are doing the best they can."
More than half of the families who have used up their five years of welfare benefits will receive the subsidy, but Chandler said most of these are under-employed and fall into the category of "working poor." "They're ... still in poverty, because the wages are so low."
Murakami said that so far, the federal government hasn't changed its policy on ending long-term welfare assistance.
Chandler said that every month, passes will leave several hundred additional families vulnerable. They'll be trying to get into an already reduced job market or joining lines at homeless shelters and feeding facilities.
"We've been very focused on employment and educational programs so they can get work, but other people will be losing jobs and entry-level jobs will be much harder to get into," she said.
'Needs here come first'
As agencies look at the inevitable fallout of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there's resolve in the business community, and among the most generous contributors to Aloha United Way. Representatives of First Hawaiian Bank, Bank of Hawai'i and HECO promised that donations they made to the September 11th Fund will not lessen their annual AUW gifts.
The three companies led corporate giving to Aloha United Way last year, with contributions topping $500,000 each.
According to Stafford Kiguchi, who heads corporate communications for Bank of Hawai'i, his bank has been one of the "Pace-Setters" for the annual charity campaign and will maintain its corporate giving this year at $427,500. Last year employees contributed another $413,000, and Kiguchi expects the amount to top that this year. "In addition, annually our charitable giving foundation has committed $1 million and all of the commitments will remain in place," Kiguchi said.
"When there's greater need, we'll stretch a little more and say yes one more time," agreed Robert 'Robbie' Alm, senior vice president of public relations for HECO.
"This is our home. The needs here come first," Alm said. "The relief efforts are extra, but they're compelling and they're not something any of us could turn our backs on. When they hit us, they hit all of us."