Women’s Fund of Hawaiʻi Emergency Funds

In times of disaster or unprecedented events, Women’s Fund of Hawai‘i (WFH) has stepped in and implemented our emergency fund protocol.

 

WFH created an Emergency Fund to provide assistance to 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations who are previous grant applicants of WFH and in urgent need of funding to maintain services or whose female service recipients and their families are in urgent need of financial assistance for basic survival needs — such as food and shelter — during times of government-declared emergencies. Nonprofit organizations who are not previous applicants may also apply and will be asked to provide additional documentation and be vetted by our committee.

WFH’s Emergency Fund program was initially created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Women and programs that assist them were disproportionately impacted by the worldwide shutdown. Because the shutdown occurred outside of WFH’s regular grants cycle, we implemented an emergency fund to provide immediate aid.

WFH would like to thank the many individuals and groups who donated to our emergency funding. With your help, we were able to assist so many women and children whose circumstances were desperate.

Through our 2020 COVID-19 Emergency Fund we were able to help organizations who were struggling to:

• Provide secondary and post-secondary educational support to female youth with intensive tutoring services, food, and iPads to complete school assignments, especially during summer school.
• Purchase diapers and wipes for low-income, homeless and families affected by COVID-19 with children age 0-4 years.
• Pay for increased PPE inventory due to COVID-19 requirements.
• Cover for funds delayed, diverted, or reduced because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its ongoing economic consequences.
• Provide emergency rental assistance for single mothers who were at risk of losing their housing due to the current pandemic.
• Purchase mattresses and bedding for women moving out of IHS’s Ka‘a‘ahi Street shelter. The shelter played a key role in COVID-19 prevention by providing the ability to socially distance while meeting personal safety, nutrition, and hygiene needs.
• Pay program fees and cover standard expenses like utilities, travel expense, and program materials and expenses for residents of our substance abuse treatment facility who have lost jobs due to the pandemic.
• Provide mini-grants which will directly supported women-run agriculture operations as they scale-up to increase their production during COVID, transition from wholesale restaurant sales to direct to consumers, and create new innovative services such mobile markets and farm-to-car markets.
• Purchase a state-of-the-art infrared temperature reader for the Pali Momi Women’s Center to ensure the safety of staff and patients and prevent person to person contact needed with manual temperature screenings.
• Provide sewing materials, food, rent relief, supplies, gas, and paper printing costs during this COVID-19 stay at home period.
• Provide short-term emergency rent/program fees and utility assistance for women affected by COVID-19 who are unable to make their monthly payments. Funds will also help to purchase hygiene and PPE supplies needed for the transitional houses.

The Emergency Fund was again activated when wildfires devastated Maui island. The immediate need for aid due to unimaginable losses was obvious, as was the need to provide assistance to the organizations who jumped in to help.

Through our 2023 Maui Wildfire Emergency Fund we were able to help organizations who were scrambling to:

• Purchase a new, permanent mobile clinic for Maui.
• Equipment to support case management and to train volunteers to do cultural curriculum that helps with mental health initiatives.
• Locate and cover costs for clean, safe birthing spaces for women who were originally planning a home birth prior to losing their homes or access to their homes due to the Maui wildfires.
• Conducting a durable equipment drive for women and girls who are disabled and lost these items in the fire.
• Since women are primary caregivers in most homes, providing mini grants (up to $500) for women to give them agency and control over how they are spent to support their displaced families.
• Delivering food and supplies to Lahaina women and children, providing school clothes and hygiene supplies, and providing those staying in Lahaina with generators and fuel.
• Transporting essential supplies and wages for drivers.
• Funding for housing, clothing, toiletries, groceries and baby necessities for folks not reached through regular channels.

WFH hopes for a future where emergency funds such as ours are not necessary, but we stand ready, as always, to help the women and children of all our islands in their time of need.