Dear Colleagues,
Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse has created a page on <<https://www.servicelearning.org>> with information about the service-learning/higher education response to the tsunami: <<https://servicelearning.org/samoa_relief>>
“In the spirit of helping our friends and colleagues in the region, we wanted to remind everyone of resources developed by and for the service-learning field around the issue of disaster preparedness/response through service-learning. As we all know, the service-learning community has a remarkable history of stepping up in times of crisis and leveraging opportunities to make a difference. We saw this, and continue to see this, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and now is another chance for students and institutions to lend a hand.” For information and resources on this work please see: <<https://www.servicelearning.org/nslc/hurricane_katrina/index.php>>
One of Service-Learning’s experts, Dr. Bob Franco from Kapiolani Community College, University of Hawaii offered the following:
The western islands of the Samoan archipelago were a territory of New Zealand until 1961 when they became the first Pacific Island entity to achieve independence from western colonial governments (a source of great pride for them). They are now simply called "Samoa."
The two main islands, Savaii (cognate with Hawaii) and Upolu, are home to about 170,000 people. The southern part of Upolu was hardest hit by the tsunami yesterday. A village called Lalomanu and three nearby villages were slammed. These four villages were making good progress and income in providing traditional Samoan houses ("fales") as accommodations for western tourists who visited there--a very beautiful traditional Polynesian environment, pristine reefs and tropical forests, and gracious people.
The Mapusaga campus of American Samoa Community College is located well inland at a higher elevation. It is on the western side of Tutuila which has been isolated from the Pago harbor area where the tsunami apparently knocked out a bridge. The college is near the airport so when supplies come in via plane they should have good access to food. Leone, a little further west from the college, and nearer the sea, was hard hit.
Samoan housing is a wonder of humanity and I'm certain they'll be no one without a roof over their head---ever. Hopefully, they'll rebuild and be stronger soon.
Robert W. Franco, Professor of Anthropology
Director, Office for Institutional Effectiveness
Kapiolani Community College, University of Hawaii
4303 Diamond Head Road
Honolulu, HI. 96816
Ph. 808-734-9514
Fax: 808-734-9162
Campus Compact, Senior Faculty Fellow compact.org
Susan Bender
The Center for Service-Learning
10/06/2009 |