Posted on: Tuesday, April 22, 2003

ISLAND VOICES
Healthcare center will miss its founder

By Hyunsun Shin

I recently learned of Joris Watland's resignation at Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, a most unfortunate development that, as I understand it, resulted from discord between Mr. Watland and board members.

I am deeply saddened by his untimely departure and fear for the future of the center without his proven leadership as its founder and executive director.

Mr. Watland persevered to keep the center operating as a community-based healthcare center that catered to the needs of Kalihi's uniquely multi-ethnic clientele of locals, Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asians.

Mr. Watland founded the center in 1972, and opened two trailer clinics in the parking lot of Kalihi Baptist Church beginning in 1973. One of the remarkable services that he initiated in those early days was the Shelter for Abused Spouses and Children, established in 1975, when few had heard of domestic violence as a descriptive term and there were no laws to protect abused adults.

When the clinic became too cramped to continue serving an enlarged clientele effectively, Mr. Watland once again sought a creative solution, lobbying and persuading prospective donors to contribute to a worthy cause. The result was the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Community Complex, dedicated in March 2001. The elegant three-story building provides 11,000 square feet of program space, which houses 10 medical examination rooms, six dental stations, family planning, WIC/nutrition, maternal childcare and a mental health department.

And it offers its services in 17 different languages.

The center has set the example not only in Kalihi, but also in the state in many areas, including a program site for reproductive education and support, one of 30 community health centers in the U.S. funded to provide primary healthcare for residents of public housing.

In September 2002, the center was nationally recognized by the federal Office of Women's Health as a Center of Excellence in Women's Health, one of only 12 such centers in the U.S. Thereafter, the center was visited by the president's Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Mr. Watland's vision has become a model of comprehensive family services that reflects over 30 years of unswerving commitment to community health and welfare.

Hyunsun Shin formerly worked at the Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services.