Ma Ka Hana Ka Ike

Ma Ka Hana Ka ‘Ike ("In Working, One Learns") is a hands-on construction skills training program for at-risk youth in Ha¯na, Maui, an isolated community on the island’s east coast with over two-thirds its population of Native Hawaiian ancestry. By applying academics such as math and science to real-life situations, the program substitutes textbooks and classroom work with tools and life experience, where the students’ education immediately serves the needs of the local community. Funding from the Cooke Foundation in 2012 supported Ma Ka Hana Ka ‘Ike’s Building for Sustainability program, in which youth built several structures including a solar hot water system and corresponding bathhouse for a kama‘a¯ina family in need. By giving youth hands-on training that emphasizes sustainable techniques, the program is instilling the value of responsible and innovative resource use. And by ensuring the project meets real community needs, it teaches the greatest lesson of all: how to ma¯lama Hawai‘i’s people and create vibrant, self-sustaining communities.

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