Kokua Line: Who gets COVID-19 funeral aid?
Question : The city is paying for funerals of Micronesian people killed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Were /are other people eligible for this ?
Answer : Yes, but through a federal program that excludes Compact of Free Association migrants living in the United States—the U.S. COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Program is open only to U.S. citizens, noncitizen nationals or qualified noncitizens, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA says it disbursed a total of about $4.2 million among 724 Hawaii applicants as of Feb. 1, reimbursing funeral expenses of family members who died of COVID-19 on or after Jan. 20, 2020. FEMA will continue to award payments to eligible survivors until Sept. 30 ; the maximum payment is $9, 000 per deceased individual, according to the FEMA website. Read more at.
By contrast, the 'Ohana Memorial Support : COVID-19 COFA Funeral Assistance Program, which the city announced this week, has budgeted $1.5 million to help reimburse funeral expenses of Oahu residents from COFA nations who died of COVID-19 from Jan. 20, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2024, according to a news release from Honolulu's Office of Economic Revitalization.
'This program addresses the significant challenges COFA migrants faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite bearing a disproportionate share of COVID-19-related deaths, COFA households were excluded from receiving federal funeral assistance due to their citizenship status, ' the news release said. According to the state Department of Health, Pacific Islanders account for 4 % of Hawaii's population, but 12 % of COVID-19 deaths.
Like the federal program, the city program for COFA families will reimburse funeral expenses of up to $9, 000 for each eligible person, although the total will be capped at $35, 500 for households that lost multiple members to COVID-19. The deceased family member must have lived on Oahu and held COFA citizenship (Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Marshall Islands or Republic of Palau ).
We Are Oceania (weareoceania.org ), the 501 (c )3 charitable group administering the city's program, is conducting community outreach online and in person to ensure that eligible COFA citizens are aware of the funding, which will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information about the application process, required documents and what expenses can be reimbursed, go to.
For questions not answered on the website, prospective applicants can follow up with WAO by phone (808-754-7303 ) or email (contact @weareoceania.org ), the news release said.
Q : Regarding the zoo concerts, the botanical gardens also have musical events in the summer.
A : Yes, the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation's free Twilight Summer Concert Series begins today at 5 :30 p.m. with jazz at Foster Botanical Garden, continues Friday at 5 p.m. with reggae at Wahiawa Botanical Garden and proceeds through July with a variety of music at Foster, Wahiawa and Ho 'omaluhia botanical gardens. 'From blues to bagpipes, island jams to jazz, there is sure to be a musical performance to your liking, ' DPR said in a news release. For the full schedule and other details, go to.
As for the zoo, Kokua Line mentioned Tuesday that this summer's Wildest Show In Town live music series is set to kick off June 11, followed by five more Wednesday evening concerts through July 23, all on the great lawn of the Honolulu Zoo in Waikiki. See details, including how to buy tickets, at. This series raises money for the zoo.------------Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813 ; call 808-529-4773 ; or email.------------
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USA Today
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- USA Today
Summer kicks off with a new corporate perk aimed to ease employees' stress
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'Or if he has a day off school and my parents work, I can spend time with him.' 'My dad always talks about when I was younger, his job didn't have this flexibility and when my mom was sick, he couldn't take her to doctor's appointments,' she added. 'Now, my job has it, and it can exist for everyone.' Education help: College applications are stressful. Here's how more companies are helping. New perks: Some workers are job hopping for fertility benefits. Employers are trying to keep up. What's at stake? The lack of available childcare alone costs the economy $122 billion every year, according to a 2023 study from the bipartisan Council for a Strong America. Yet, just 12% of all U.S. workers have access to childcare benefits through their employer, and only 6% of those who work part-time or in the lowest income quartile do, according to a Boston Consulting Group study published last year. 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U.S. bishops contributed over one-third of the $22 million (19.3 million euros) collected annually under the provision from 2021-2023, according to Vatican data. The other main source of annual donations is more well-known to ordinary Catholics: Peter's Pence, a special collection usually taken on the last Sunday of June. From 2021-2023, individual Catholics in the U.S. gave an average $27 million (23.7 million euros) to Peter's Pence, more than half the global total. American generosity hasn't prevented overall Peter's Pence contributions from cratering. After hitting a high of $101 million (88.6 million euros) in 2006, contributions hovered around $75 million (66.8 million euros) during the 2010's then tanked to $47 million (41.2 million euros) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many churches were closed. 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But the amounts have dwindled; the bank gave nothing specifically to the pope in 2023, despite registering a net profit of 30 million euros ($34.2 million), according to its financial statements. The governorate's giving has likewise dropped off. Some Vatican officials ask how the Holy See can credibly ask donors to be more generous when its own institutions are holding back. Leo will need to attract donations from outside the U.S., no small task given the different culture of philanthropy, said the Rev. Robert Gahl, director of the Church Management Program at Catholic University of America's business school. He noted that in Europe there is much less of a tradition (and tax advantage) of individual philanthropy, with corporations and government entities doing most of the donating or allocating designated tax dollars. Even more important is leaving behind the 'mendicant mentality' of fundraising to address a particular problem, and instead encouraging Catholics to invest in the church as a project, he said. Speaking right after Leo's installation ceremony in St. Peter's Square, which drew around 200,000 people, Gahl asked: 'Don't you think there were a lot of people there that would have loved to contribute to that and to the pontificate?' In the U.S., donation baskets are passed around at every Sunday Mass. Not so at the Vatican. Untapped real estate The Vatican has 4,249 properties in Italy and 1,200 more in London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland. Only about one-fifth are rented at fair market value, according to the annual report from the APSA patrimony office, which manages them. Some 70% generate no income because they house Vatican or other church offices; the remaining 10% are rented at reduced rents to Vatican employees. In 2023, these properties only generated 35 million euros ($39.9 million) in profit. Financial analysts have long identified such undervalued real estate as a source of potential revenue. But Ward Fitzgerald, the president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation, which finances papal charities, said the Vatican should also be willing to sell properties, especially those too expensive to maintain. Many bishops are wrestling with similar downsizing questions as the number of church-going Catholics in parts of the U.S. and Europe shrinks and once-full churches stand empty. Toward that end, the Vatican recently sold the property housing its embassy in Tokyo's high-end Sanbancho neighborhood, near the Imperial Palace, to a developer building a 13-story apartment complex, according to the Kensetsu News trade journal. Yet there has long been institutional reluctance to part with even money-losing properties. Witness the Vatican announcement in 2021 that the cash-strapped Fatebenefratelli Catholic hospital in Rome, run by a religious order, would not be sold. Pope Francis simultaneously created a Vatican fundraising foundation to keep it and other Catholic hospitals afloat. 'They have to come to grips with the fact that they own so much real estate that is not serving the mission of the church,' said Fitzgerald, who built a career in real estate private equity. ___ AP reporter Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed. ___
