All Hands and Hearts deployed volunteers to support local relief efforts to Maui, Hawaii immediately following the devastating August 2023 wildfires that destroyed the town of Lahaina, displaced thousands and drastically altered the lives and livelihoods of the community's most vulnerable people. We continue to support the heightened demand for assistance for health, social services and early stage housing recovery work as evolving needs are identified and prioritized by the affected community.
Historic Lahaina town, with its many multi-generational native Hawaiian families, was already experiencing a shortage of affordable housing and rising food insecurity when the fires struck and propelled those issues into a large-scale crisis. Nearly a year has passed, yet recovery of the local economy and housing reconstruction has barely begun, and local organizations still require many extra hands to maintain their capacity to meet the Lahaina community's most basic needs for months to come.
With your support, All Hands and Hearts can continue to provide "people power" on Maui. Our reliable, service-oriented volunteer labor force plugs into locally-led initiatives - working "laulima" (together) with farms, food pantries, kitchens, distribution centers, and bringing safety and well-being upgrades to interim campuses serving displaced school communities. As efforts transition to recovery, we will begin offering volunteer-friendly housing scopes of work to our community partners.
As of early summer 2024, we have deployed 200+ volunteers, who have donated 22,700+ hours of labor, to directly impact 19,500+ individuals. Our aim is to continue to supply our community partners with a labor force experienced in early-mid-late stage disaster recovery work. Soon, we will be adding debris removal for residential properties as a compelling new scope of work that will pave the way for homeowners to begin rebuilding by the end of the year.
