During Thanksgiving week, tsunami-affected students in the English Language Institute (ELI) at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) received bags containing food, school supplies, clothing and other useful items through a combined effort of the College and concerned off-island organizations. ELI identified a total of 63 students within its classes who had suffered significant losses as a result of the September 29 th disaster, and in its effort to provide relief to these students ELI received support from the Service Learning Center at the University of Hawaii, and the Community College National Center for Community Engagement (CCNCCE) based in Mesa, Arizona.

Soon after the disaster, ASCC administrators formed the Tsunami Campus Outreach Committee, led by Vice President of Student and Academic Affairs Dr. Kathleen Kolhoff and Dean of Academic Affairs Dr. Irene Helsham. The committee, which included ELI Chairperson Mrs. Elisapeta Faalafi-Jones, focused on keeping tsunami victims from having to withdraw from the College due to mitigating circumstances. Faalafi-Jones took responsibility for the students in her department, while others looked after students in the upper level classes.

"Our main focus was to provide textbooks and supplies for the students," explained Faalafi-Jones, who also serves as the College's Service Learning Coordinator. She first set up an account at the ASCC LeBookstore under Service Learning for ELI to purchase necessary textbooks at half price for tsunami victims. Allocating almost $1000 from her Service Learning account, Faalafi-Jones made sure that the affected students had their textbooks within a week. She also purchased school supplies for 63 affected students out of her own pocket. "Forsgren's gave me a discount on materials because they were for tsunami victims," she recalled.

To offset the expenditure on the textbooks, Faalafi-Jones received assistance from the CCNCCE, whose Executive Director Lyvier Conss has visited American Samoa to observe the progress of Service Learning programs. The CCNCCE offers extensive Service Learning and civic engagement resources to a membership located across the nation, and in the wake of the American Samoa disaster issued an appeal to its broad constituency. "As a usual practice of this organization, members donate to disaster areas either during the yearly conference or other appropriate time. Previously, we members donated to Alabama Community College after Hurricane Katrina," explained Faalafi-Jones. Conss also personally sent a box of school bags to assist the ELI students.

Faalafi-Jones works closely with the Service Learning Center at the University of Hawaii, and its Executive Director Atina Pascua and State Network Director Denise Pierson have also traveled to American Samoa on several occasions. Pascua and Pierson have sent 16 boxes of bags and supplies for ASCC tsunami victims, which at this writing are still on their way to the Territory. In the meantime, ELI students themselves also made substantial donations of food and clothing to their affected classmates.

"Like everywhere else on island after the devastation, the ELI academic program was disrupted," reflected Faalafi-Jones, "but the urgent response from our friends and our own students calmed the situation and assisted our victims with their needs. Now as we approach the end of the semester, our students can concentrate on completing this year.  It has not been easy, but 'O le tele o lima e mama ai se avega'. Many hands and heads make our work easier."
  For more information on the CCNCCE, visit their webpage at http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/engagement/ . The University of Hawaii Service Learning Center also has a very informative webpage at: http://www.hawaii.edu/servicelearning/ .