Awards
Advertiser Staff
A University of Hawai'i-based project studying the long-term effects of volcanic emissions on the respiratory health of the Big Island population has received a $305,042 award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The LAVA project — for lung assessment during volcanic activity — will receive $1.5 million over five years.
It is a comprehensive program that simultaneously measures air quality and chronic lung health. Its goals are to teach residents research skills so they can participate in their environmental health and safety, to assess the community's exposure to vog over the last 10 years, to measure acidity and the amount of particles small enough to breathe and to do cross-sectional studies of the respiratory systems and lung functions of children who have always lived with the emissions.
Project head Elizabeth Tam of the UH-Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine credits Big Island residents for pushing for the program and their willingness to participate.
• The American Lung Association of Hawai'i has received grants from:
• The Hawai'i Community Foundation's Leahi Fund, $25,000 to further the work of the lung association's asthma educational program, Open Airways for Schools.
The program teaches children ages 8 to 11 how to cope with asthma. More than 40,000 children in Hawai'i suffer from the condition.
• The Kaiser Permanente/American Lung Association National Partnership on Asthma, $25,000, also for Open Airways for Schools.
The lung association has sponsored community-based asthma programs for more than 25 years. In the past several years, the association has operated asthma sports day camps in each county.
• The American Diabetes Association of Hawai'i has received three grants: $10,000 from the Atherton Family Foundation, $1,000 from the Jhamandas Watumull Fund and $1,000 from the Chung Kun Ai Foundation.
The Atherton grant will pay for the Kulia Ola Kino Maika'i (Strive for Good Health) Train the Trainer Program for Native Hawaiians. The other two grants will be allocated to public education programs.
"The support of Hawai'i's philanthropic community is vital to our success," said Wendy Sefo, executive director of the association. "As a group, Native Hawaiians are at high risk for developing diabetes. The Train the Trainer program teaches people how to teach healthy eating and exercise habits to others in their community."
• The American Heart Association of Hawai'i has received a $240,000 grant from the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation to place automated external defibrillators throughout Hawai'i. The grant stipulates that the heat association distribute the defibrillators to organizations serving the poor and needy.
The grant will serve as an extension of the Heart Association of Hawai'i's Operation Heartbeat health initiative. The initiative's goal is to reduce deaths from cardiac arrest by 25 percent by 2010.
The heart association is accepting applications from sites interested in receiving a defibrillator. Call the association's O'ahu office at (888) 277-5463.
