In the Marshall Islands, as is the case anywhere in the world, there are kids that slip through the cracks. These are kids who do not finish public schooling, often have family troubles and sometimes struggle with alcohol abuse. Due to the new globalized world the Marshall Islands are a part of, kids who would once have a spot in the traditional Marshallese culture are now simply young and unemployed.
Cue the “Waan Aelon in Majel Program” or WAM. Translated into English it means “Canoes of the Marshall Islands Program,” and it is aimed at giving options to kids who do not have many.
Things started in 1989 when Alson Kelen, a Marshallese man who graduated from Chemeketa Community College in 1991, traveled all around the many small atolls in the Marshall Islands on a grant from the Department of the Interior. His job, along with college Dennis Alessio, was to document just exactly how a Marshallese canoe went from logs to speedy outrigger. As they documented the process on atoll after atoll, one thing caught Kelen’s eye.
“We saw on the outer islands that whole groups of people would come together to build these canoes,”Kelen recalls. “Even during that documentary stage we were thinking about how this could be educational.”
So Kelen came back to Majuro with the idea of building traditional canoes. On and off over the next nine years Kelen put together canoes with the help of neighborhood kids and in 1998 they took the then ambassador from Australia out for a ride. He was so impressed with what he saw that he offered Kelen a grant to start a youth program. In 1999, WAM was incorporated.
“That’s when we started to get more serious,” Kelen says.
Kelen started crafting the WAM program into something other than a way to preserve the art of canoe-making but also a way to help disadvantaged kids out. Most of the kids enrolling in the program were basically “street kids,” Kelen says and making them accountable was a crucial beginning step.
“The fact that these kids can come in and punch in and punch out is a huge thing in itself,” Kelen says.
WAM is priming these kids for employment and it starts from the very beginning. Each kid needs to submit an application and come in for interviews. As part of the program all are required to get training in math, English and life-skills along with alcohol abuse counseling.
Students come in for phase one, a sixth-month course of study focusing on building canoe models and working on basic carpentry skills, and then choose whether or not to pursue the program further in stage two, up to two years focusing on advanced wood-working and fiber-glassing.
The changes in the youth have been clear and encouraging.
“When they first come in here they are kind of lost,” Kelen says. “They are kids from the streets. They are nervous, shy and afraid. You see a lot of changes. They start working together as partners and they bond together.”
Each incoming class for stage one is 14 students and seven can eventually move on to stage two. However there has been a problem recently — all 14 kids want to move on to stage two. This is perhaps the biggest signal of change in these kids at risk. They have gone from being undependable and unemployable to kids who simply do not want to stop learning and improving.
“These were kids who would get nervous when I asked them to do work and hide in the bathroom,” Kelen says. “Now they are kids who don’t want to stop.”
Kids slip through the cracks everyplace in the world — unfortunately they do not have a place like WAM everyplace in the world to help them back up to solid ground.
The love you give comes back in the end.
--------------------------------------------------------
Cue the “Waan Aelon in Majel Program” or WAM. Translated into English it means “Canoes of the Marshall Islands Program,” and it is aimed at giving options to kids who do not have many.
Things started in 1989 when Alson Kelen, a Marshallese man who graduated from Chemeketa Community College in 1991, traveled all around the many small atolls in the Marshall Islands on a grant from the Department of the Interior. His job, along with college Dennis Alessio, was to document just exactly how a Marshallese canoe went from logs to speedy outrigger. As they documented the process on atoll after atoll, one thing caught Kelen’s eye.
“We saw on the outer islands that whole groups of people would come together to build these canoes,”Kelen recalls. “Even during that documentary stage we were thinking about how this could be educational.”
So Kelen came back to Majuro with the idea of building traditional canoes. On and off over the next nine years Kelen put together canoes with the help of neighborhood kids and in 1998 they took the then ambassador from Australia out for a ride. He was so impressed with what he saw that he offered Kelen a grant to start a youth program. In 1999, WAM was incorporated.
“That’s when we started to get more serious,” Kelen says.
Kelen started crafting the WAM program into something other than a way to preserve the art of canoe-making but also a way to help disadvantaged kids out. Most of the kids enrolling in the program were basically “street kids,” Kelen says and making them accountable was a crucial beginning step.
“The fact that these kids can come in and punch in and punch out is a huge thing in itself,” Kelen says.
WAM is priming these kids for employment and it starts from the very beginning. Each kid needs to submit an application and come in for interviews. As part of the program all are required to get training in math, English and life-skills along with alcohol abuse counseling.
Students come in for phase one, a sixth-month course of study focusing on building canoe models and working on basic carpentry skills, and then choose whether or not to pursue the program further in stage two, up to two years focusing on advanced wood-working and fiber-glassing.
The changes in the youth have been clear and encouraging.
“When they first come in here they are kind of lost,” Kelen says. “They are kids from the streets. They are nervous, shy and afraid. You see a lot of changes. They start working together as partners and they bond together.”
Each incoming class for stage one is 14 students and seven can eventually move on to stage two. However there has been a problem recently — all 14 kids want to move on to stage two. This is perhaps the biggest signal of change in these kids at risk. They have gone from being undependable and unemployable to kids who simply do not want to stop learning and improving.
“These were kids who would get nervous when I asked them to do work and hide in the bathroom,” Kelen says. “Now they are kids who don’t want to stop.”
Kids slip through the cracks everyplace in the world — unfortunately they do not have a place like WAM everyplace in the world to help them back up to solid ground.
The love you give comes back in the end.
--------------------------------------------------------
1 comment:
What happens after kids finish the entire two year program? Is it lack of money that doesn't let all 14 kids go on to the next stage?
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