AARP Grant Funds Molokai Wifi, Digital Literacy Classes

KAUNAKAKAI, Molokai -- During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Guzeiji Soto Mission of Molokai sat mostly empty. Their minister couldn’t fly in from Oahu for services and they had to cancel their popular bon dance. But an $11,500 AARP Community Challenge grant has giving the temple a new life as a gathering place for the community.

The mission and the Krause Family Foundation ‘Alana Ke Aloha got the grant to set up a wifi hotspot at the mission and for benches and tables where people using the hotspot can sit and access the internet.

“We hope to be a gathering place,” said Lisa Takata, the president of the Guzeiji Soto Mission. “You don’t have to be Buddhist. You don’t have to be a member of the church. You can come and access the hotspot.

“With the grant we’re able to offer activities once a month, whereas we couldn’t do anything during the pandemic,” Takata said. “We’re thankful for AARP’s support so we can revitalize our services to the community.”

Applications are now open for the 2023 AARP Community Challenge Grants. Nonprofit organizations who need funds to complete a project by Nov. 30^th are encouraged to apply. To learn more an apply, go to aarp.org/communitychallenge. The deadline to submit an application is coming up on March 15 at 5 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Hawai`i time.

The mission has been using the hotspot, with help from Molokai High School teacher Michael Onofrio and his digital media students, to teach kupuna how to use their devices.The intergenerational approach seems to be working. Even with access to the Internet, some kupuna have trouble getting online because they don’t know how to use the technology. They are eager to learn and the students, for whom technology is second nature, are learning to share their knowledge.

“They (kupuna) learn real fast and they’re really energetic trying to learn new things. I really like it. There’s a lot of conversations. I learn from them as much as they learn from us,” said Quedin Bumatay, a Molokai High School senior. “When I explain the lesson and they get a spark in their eye. They’re so excited. They’re smiling. They’re like “oh wow I didn’t know that.” That makes me so happy because it means I prepared and that I have the necessary skill to communicate and teach.”

“I just found out there are so many easier ways to get on the Internet.in just a couple of little steps. Whereas before I was just kind of stumbling through it,” said Lopaka Morin, a Molokai kupuna who was at Thursday’s workshop. “To have a place like this to go to is great because things on Molokai since the pandemic has almost become dust, disappeared. To be able to have the temple and people to migrate to for information, to get information and to be able to have friends and culminate each other’s friendship, this is the place It’s great it really is.”

The Molokai grant was one of three awarded in Hawai`i last year and part of $3.4 million awarded among 260 organizations nationwide. Grantees completed quick-action projects that help communities become more livable by improving public places; transportation; housing; diversity, equity and inclusion; digital access; and civic engagement, with an emphasis on the needs of adults age 50 and over.

The grant program is part of AARP’s nationwide Livable Communities initiative, which supports the efforts of cities, towns, neighborhoods and rural areas to become great places to live for people of all ages. Since the Community Challenge Grant program started in 2017, 20 Hawai`i projects received $234,366 to improve and create parks, beautify urban areas, bring mobile theatre to the Big Island, encourage bicycle sharing by older residents, make streets safer and generally make communities more livable.