Idea for homeless
My name is Savannah, and I am a student at Bridgewater State University (Massachusetts) minoring in social welfare.
I have spent the last six months in Hawaii and have seen the growing homelessness rates firsthand.
I understand that there are fewer people in the shelters because of COVID-19 spreading, and I have a recommendation that could drastically help. I think there should be a way for the homeless to get vaccinated through a mobile unit. This unit could also provide testing as well as contain access to PPE, since I have noticed many homeless people do not have PPE to help keep themselves safe from COVID.
The island has a large number of hotels as well that have empty rooms at various times throughout the year that could be used in order to keep COVID from spreading on the streets, if the government would help provide the homeless a safe space to quarantine.
The testing is one of the biggest factors. There should be contract tracing implemented in shelters as well as testing and even possible vaccination for these people who wouldn’t normally know where the resources would be in order to get the help that they need.
I want to help the state that I have been residing in and help these people who are struggling during this pandemic.
Savannah Kelley
Wahiawa, Oahu
Mail woes
I emailed my friend living in Nanawale inquiring whether she got the envelope I recently mailed to her (Hilo to Pahoa via Honolulu). She did not, and she told me that there is a systemic mail delivery failure that’s been going on in Nanawale for quite some time.
Residents are getting notices that their packages have been delivered, when they most certainly have not!
People are getting the wrong mail in their boxes, and many not getting their mail at all. They’re posting notices among themselves, asking anyone if they’ve seen their long-awaited mail. For seniors depending on getting their prescriptions by mail, this is life-threatening.
The Pahoa Post Office does not answer their phone. Nanawale residents have been required to put their physical home addresses as part of their mailing address, and my friend has been told that this invalidates their legal mailing addresses which go to P.O. boxes.
This is an extremely serious issue that needs to be investigated and resolved immediately! Whoever has the power, please help!
Dorothy Zipp Malinski
Hilo
Eradicate Taliban
The Taliban is more deadly than COVID-19 and all its variations. It has to be eradicated once and for all.
We should be ashamed of having the Taliban affecting children and women and all those trapped in what is nothing more than a physical and spiritual straitjacket.
But we should not oppose this system alone. We should seek our true allies across the globe to join us in ending this disease, including Russia, and setting up a central government with our support and that of our other allies.
Abolghassem Abraham Sadegh
Hilo