Looking Back:
1972 to 1973 Community Aides’ Annual Report
We honor our founding community workers, Super Aunties and Uncles, by reprinting their first annual report. Their stories continue to inspire us with their love and dedication to this community.
Frances Rowe
Francis Rowe became a community aides supervisor on the 11th day of July, 1972. At the time of employment, sole support for her and her six children was from welfare. Her salary was paid by Concentrated Employment Program (CEP) till the end of the year. She attended classes in Psychology and Ethnic Studies twice a week, an average of eight hours per week, and thirty-two hours on the job site. She participated with the other aides in training in female cancer detection, first aid, nutrition, consumer education and family planning. In addition to this training, she attended orientation that was provided by 18 other agencies.
Her job as supervisor has been to coordinate the efforts of the community aides and counsel them. Since January she has been working with drug abuse, unwed mothers, marital problems and is now working closely with the court cases involving runaway teenagers of Kalihi Valley. Her prime concern is teenagers with drug problems or those that have been reported as runaways. In this capacity many of her visits are late at night or early in the morning.
Presently she is working with seven families of runaways and eight families with drug problems. Juvenile Crime Prevention Department (JCPD) has called her when a Kalihi Valley teenager has been picked up on a runaway report or curfew violation. She referred four teenagers to Waikiki Drug Clinic for consultation and one to Hale ola. She is also working with the staff of Queen's Psychiatric Ward in helping a 26-year-old female referred to her after spending two nights in Hale Ola. Although much of her time is in dealing with teenagers, she has helped eighteen families in getting information or help they needed, such as medical assistance, general welfare assistance, and dental assistance. She recently helped a family obtain an attorney to prepare papers on a last will and testament for a dying relative. She was also able to obtain beds from St. Ann’s Convent for those who were in need of them.
Ms. Rowe also serves as secretary of the Board of Directors for Kokua Kalihi Valley, as a resource person to the other staff because of her broad contact with service agencies, as a Headstart mother, as a committee member of the Headstart Parent Advisory Committee. During the absence of the executive director in May, she served as acting director of the agency.
Mrs. Florida A. Felipe
Mrs. Florida A. Felipe is finding her job as a community aide at Kokua Kalihi Valley enjoyable and rewarding.
She brought several families to the Department of Social Services who were badly in need of immediate assistance and was able to get financial help and food stamps for them. She also obtained food and transportation from FISH and clothing and furniture from Kaumakapili Church for three families, one of whom was a fire victim. Other duties have been to make referrals to Consumer Protection and Bureau of Licensing Board, Planned Parenthood, seek legal aid from a private law firm that donates its services to the community, assisting in job applications at the Manpower and Housing Council at the offices of the State and Federal Housing Authority, referring three immigrant students to Educational Guidance Opportunity, helping a young newcomer into getting into business school, aided families in getting adequate housing, assisted a young girl seeking her inheritance left by her adopted father, and gave advice to an elderly man on his social security benefits and how he could get benefits for his wife and step children.
Ms. Felipe helped a family with health problems by bringing three of them to Lanakila Health Center for x-rays skin tests and is now making a close followup of those under treatment. She arranged emergency attention for two mothers who had threatened miscarriages. Through her efforts, one of them received free medical services at Kalihi Medical Center. She also provided for a doctor to make house calls to two senior citizens referred to her by Area Wide Outreach for the Elderly. They were too sick or physically unable to get treatment outside their home.
In one of her home visits, she came across a [severely disabled] elderly man. He had been feeling numb and dizzy for months. Immediately, Ms. Felipe brought him to the hospital. She followed through and in subsequent visits trained his wife to make appointments with the doctor, arrange transportation, register at the hospital, get the prescription, and administer his medicines religiously.
She gave counseling to two couples and later referred them to Kalihi Clinic. Counseling has also been given in areas of nutrition, credit and budgeting. She made Ilocano translations for Kalihi School, Kaewai School, Camp Fire Girls and Kalihi Valley Homes Tenant Newsletter.
In addition to the above, Ms. Felipe worked closely with the schools. At Kalihi School, she coordinated programs in Filipino Culture at the PTA meeting and a separate one for the children and school staff, helped new immigrant children get oriented and acculturated, and acted as an interpreter. At Kaewai School, she helped the immigrant Filipino children by holding one-hour classes every Wednesday. In both schools she followed up cases referred to her. She also arranged a Parent-Administrator meeting regarding a school drop out at Farrington High School. She also worked with an Indian Social Work student referred by the University of Hawaii through Susannah Wesley Center.
Most of the families she worked with are non English-speaking Filipino immigrants so her knowledge of Tagalog and llocano was put to good use.
Community work is not new to Ms. Felipe. Her 34 years of teaching experience in the Philippines included community work and first aid. In Hawaii, she was a community worker at the English language and Cultural Orientation Center, a Model Cities Project. Through her work in this project, she became aware of the multiple problems of new immigrants as well as those who had lived in Hawaii long before. She is presently taking courses in Community Development.
Ms. Felipe established contact with the community by going from door-to-door, conversing with residents in buses and bus stops, working with schools, getting
information from friends, agencies, and even by attending parties and meetings. She doesn't simply wait for problems to be brought to her attention but spots them, takes action and follows through to be sure the families' needs are completely taken care of.
Ieremia Tuiolemotu
Ieremia Tuiolemotu is a minister of the Samoan Methodist Church at Kalihi, board member of Kokua Kalihi Valley, and a member of the Community Aide Committee.
He started serving in the program as a community aide on January, 1973, working particularly with the Samoan people, especially those who were living in the public housing at Kam IV Road. He also works with Kaewai Elementary School with the Samoan children referred to him by the principal and the staff, and serves as an interpreter and translator for the Samoan people who are unable to read, write or speak English. With his assistance in this area, it has made it easier for the Catholic Social Service workers to assist the Samoan [elders living] in public housing.
He feels comfortable and appreciates the cooperation of all the community aides in making him aware of the different agencies he can call on. The staff meetings on Mondays and Thursdays of each week give him an opportunity to share with the other aides points of view in handling various cases. This also gives him a chance to hear from the director and the supervisor for further information concerning his work. He has been able to inform the staff of particular problems with Samoan families and also assists in translating at the medical clinic.
Doing translations for parent notices for Kaewai and Kalihi elementary Schools, a translation for the Lanakila Health Center for the X-ray sign board, and assisting University of Hawaii graduate students in doing a survey of the needs and conditions of Samoan families at Kalihi Valley Homes were tasks he enjoyed.
He has introduced Samoan families to public and private services available to them. He has assisted Dr. Charles Judd at the clinic to arrange counseling and prayer before surgery for the Samoan people.
He has assisted in setting up the medical clinic, in being a liaison between families and housing and Catholic Social Services and has been a support for Samoans in Family Court. Rev. Tuiolemotu gave the invocation at the dedication of the new library. He has assisted with the Hawaiian Housing Authority at Kalihi working with the Samoan families and is also willing to use his muscles for painting, heavy lifting, etc., to assist the families in the valley.
Florence Mow
Florence Mow has been active in the affairs of the Kalihi Community Association for over twenty years and is a community aide with Kokua Kalihi Valley. Her main duty is coordinator of the Medical Clinic, seeing that the activities are set up in a temporary apartment in the Kalihi Valley Housing, coordinating the nurses’ and doctors’ hours, securing materials, interviewing patients and relating their problems to the doctor or nurse. There is a follow-up of medication taken, how the patient is recuperating, and in fact, just a neighborly visit.
She served as a representative on the inter-agency council of Kalihi Valley Housing, Red Cross and Campfire Girls and helped with the Kalihi Valley Housing Christmas party. Ms. Mow assisted in coordinating the first anniversary banquet for the board of directors for Kokua Kalihi Valley dinner and also an appreciation banquet for the Job Corps volunteers who did much carpentry work for our mobile trailers.
She attended the Family Power class (Susanna Wesley) involving six mothers of the valley in a class textbook, “Children: The Challenge.” From this class developed another – “Teach Your Child 0 to 5,” meeting Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon involving the mothers and their children into discussion and field trips. Other classes attended were in Money Management, Ethnic Studies, Behavior Modification, Family Power, Nutrition, First Aide, Family Planning, Leadership Training, etc.
Interviewing people to serve on the Kokua Kalihi Valley Planning Committee to establish a pre-school program, meeting with them regularly for 12 weeks, and establishing guidelines for such a class was her duty.
She discovered resources outside of the valley (Honolulu Council of Churches, St. Ann’s Church) for beds, furniture, clothes, etc., for needy families, and helped transport the needed articles to the families. Recipients of this type of aid included three unwed mothers who got help from the Department of Social Services, Food Stamp Program and Public Health, and were helped to secure baby beds and clothes.
Providing transportation for children of immigrant families relocated to different schools other than in their area was another accomplishment. Temporary transportation was set up for those who needed to meet the bus at Kuhio Park Terrace to attend a demonstration preschool elsewhere in Honolulu. She has assisted children in getting services from Diamond Head Child and Development Center and Kapahulu Learning Disability Center. Other transportation provided has been for mothers to go to banks, Lankila Health Center, Department of Social Services, Housing office, grocery shopping, doctor and dental appointments.
She has helped families utilize agencies such as the Consumer Credit Counseling, Well Baby Clinic, Planned Parenthood, Kalihi Clinic, Legal Aid, Catholic Social Services, Area-wide Services to the Elderly, Food Stamps, and Mattoch, Kemper, and Brown Law Firm. She assisted them in cooking, sewing, and budgeting. If a child wasn’t doing well in school, she acted as a liaison between school and parent. Weekly 4-H club work for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade girls at Kalihi Uka School was another area of help.
Various other ways she has assisted have been in giving financial aid to a family whose head of the household was hospitalized, or cooking several meals until a mother got home from the hospital. She counseled families with marital and household problems, and girls on contraceptive methods. She took a father to Planned Parenthood and eventually to a doctor for a vasectomy. After receiving an SOS from a disturbed mother, she made several visits to the home and found Lanakila knew of her condition and left the case to them. Finding a home with six motherless children ranging in ages three to twelve, she worked with the Visiting Homemaker to see that the children were using medications for pediculosis and is taking one child to Children’s Hospital out-patient clinic once a month for shots.
Myrna Cooper
For Myrna Cooper, working with Kokua Kalihi Valley is a self-help process. She joined Kokua Kalihi Valley at the time when she badly needed financial and moral support. Beset by a troubled marriage, the prospect of being deported, and an enormous medical bill incurred by her 6 year-old son, she plunged into her job as community aide with all the enthusiasm she could muster.
Unlike the rest of the community aides, she did not go to formal classes at the nearby community college. She started out in July of 1972 as assistant to the director -- taking phone calls, arranging meetings, and generally pinch-hitting when needed. This also meant going to meetings with health and community services agencies in the area and setting up the schedules for the training and orientation program that all the aides were to go through. By the end of August that year, she gradually made her presence felt in the community.
With the opening of classes in September, Kaewai Elementary School seemed a logical choice as an initial contact with the families in the Valley. It was after a meeting with the principal and the staff, she found herself calling on families referred to her by the school. Most of the calls were on immigrant families whose children bad problems communicating with most anybody in school. She stayed with the kids in class, when needed, acting as liaison between the student and teacher, or between the parent and the school. Among such families, she found the inability to communicate in spoken English to be a major hindrance to getting the services they needed. She aided families in applying for food stamps, in availing themselves of services at Lanakila Health Center, and in getting legal services and in family planning.
Some of her contacts with families have been referrals by other agencies in the area -- helping a sole parent with 4 children finding housing, seeing to it that preventive health care measures recommended by public health nurses are followed, and working with families whose children are classified as mentally [challenged], trainable or educable.
She has had a total of 50 contacts with families. This usually involves providing emergency transportation to families who call in or to families being serviced by another aide. A total of 20 families have been recipients of the comprehensive kind of service that Kokua Kalihi Valley provides--taking members of the family to the Kokua Kalihi Valley medical clinic, counseling unwed and pregnant mothers in contraception, helping in the preparation of income tax returns, assistance in preparing a budget, generating interest in the community activities, and introducing an awareness that nothing is going to change unless one wants to change it.
Life as a community aide has its rewards and frustrations. One of her frustrations has been families who get either too dependent on her or can't make up their minds as to what they really want. Sometimes, it involves risk, like the time a 10-yearold boy turned on her with a knife because she was coaxing him to go to school. Persistence and patience on her part paid off. The boy is now regularly in school attendance, and his family has a healthier outlook on life.
Rewards have come to her in many forms. The many contacts she has had with government service agencies and private offices enable her to help families more effectively in the shortest possible time. Such agencies as the Immigration Service Center, Quick Kokua, Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, Department of Social Services and Housing, Hawaii Housing Authority, Department of Health (Public Health Nursing. Branch and Kalihi Mental Health Clinic), Department of Agriculture - Food Stamp Program -- have been supportive of the program and sympathetic to her efforts at bringing service within the reach of families in Kalihi Valley. Her close liaison with Legal Aid and a private law firm has brought legal counseling at no cost to valley residents.
