• Kokua for others Kokua for others Kokua, the Hawaiian concept of helping others is a key ingredient in the mix of good that happens on Kaua‘i. Every week it seems there is a good news story about how someone,
• Kokua for others
Kokua for others
Kokua, the Hawaiian concept of helping others is a key ingredient in the mix of good that happens on Kaua‘i. Every week it seems there is a good news story about how someone, or some organization or group of neighbors or friends, has gone out of their way to help someone in need.
Our doctors are leading exponents of this spirit. Dr. Lee “Bill” Evslin, president and chief executive officer of Wilcox Health (Wilcox Memorial Hospital and Kauai Medical Clinic) and executive vice president for Hawaii Pacific Health is taking part in the Aloha Medical Mission that’s helping with tsunami-relief efforts in the Banda Aceh in northern Sumatra in Indonesia. Dr. Jeffrey Goodman, the founder of the medical clinic at Kilauea, has been to Liberia and other war-torn nations to provide medical aid for needy residents and refugees.
Our Rotary Clubs are outstanding examples of public service for others in far away places like India.
Churches are sending out tsunami relief teams to Sri Lanka and Thailand, putting their core beliefs to practice in helping others in need.
On Island, there are too many organizations helping out to name, with the United Way, the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, the Kaua‘i Food Bank, the Lili‘uokalani Trust, the Bishop Estate and others channeling funds and personnel to various areas of need in our communities.
Individuals in need are also helped. This week we received a phone call from a Honolulu mother whose infant son is on the way to Seattle for eye surgery. Her plight appeared on Honolulu television. Students from Kalaheo School, who are recovering from their own calamity following a fire in early May, took their own funds and sent support to her and her child. She wanted to make sure they were thanked and called during the hectic hours prior to their flight to the Mainland in preparation for surgery.
Our roving photographer/reporter Dennis Fujimoto is attuned to these stories and constantly uncovers the selfless giving that happens on Kaua‘i. The wide variety of stories Dennis – and or other reporters – turn out is amazing.
One wonders where our Island would be at today if we didn’t share this spirit of kokua. In part its cultural roots go beyond the Hawaiian spirit of aloha.
It is a reminder of the close-knit communities of our plantation era, when families didn’t have that much, but did have an overabundance of goodwill and sharing. Visitors and newcomers to the Island also pick up on spreading kokua.
Some provided sizeable checks to provide transportation for worthy causes; others just help out where they see a need, not asking for anything in return beyond the good feeling of helping out.
It is hoped as the development of our Island moves ahead full force that this aloha for one another expressed through kokua lives on.
It is up to us to keep it alive by taking the time to remember others who are suffering through times of need, to look to the need of others when we can.
