Posted at 11:48 a.m., Thursday, August 29, 2002
Hansen's activist Punikai'a owns the day
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Bernard Punikaia looks over old photos from 1983 when he and other patients were evicted from Hale Mohalu, after a ceremony in his honor in the governor's office.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Laden with lei, Punikai'a, who turned 72 today, was greeted by 40 friends, including Gov. Ben Cayetano and U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie.
Punikai'a is best known as a human rights activist who championed a five-year struggle to save Hale Mohalu, a Pearl City residential treatment facility for Hansen's disease patients. Punikai'a was diagnosed with the disease when he was 6 years old.
"All we want to do today is publicly recognize what many of us have known in our personal lives, what you have meant to the patients of Hansen's disease," Abercrombie said.
