OHA offers financial aid for Native Hawaiian keiki

The new OHA initiative, Kāko'o Ho'ona'auao, will provide Hawaiian families with greater access to educational opportunities for their children. OHA will provide a total of $500,000 per year for the next two years to fund the Kāko'o Ho'ona'auao K-12 Family Education Assistance Program, which will be administered this year by Chaminade University.

Applicants must be parents or caregivers of children attending private school in grades K-12 or some other specialized academic program in Hawaii which incurs significant economic costs for the family. The parent or caregiver must live on or be eligible to live on Hawaiian Homelands, must demonstrate financial need and must register with OHA’s Hawaiian Registry Program. For information on registering, call (808) 594-1914. Preference will be given to the most economically disadvantaged families.

Chaminade will accept applications through Dec. 1 and awards will be dispersed in early 2010 for the current 2009-10 school year. To download an application or apply online, visit www.chaminade.edu/oha or www.oha.org/edu. Applications may be mailed to: Financial Aid Office, Chaminade University of Honolulu, 3140 Waialae Ave., Ching Hall, Room 11, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-1578.

For more information, call (808) 735-4706 from Oahu or (800) 735-3733, ext. 4706, from the neighbor islands.