 Marcia Joyner and we are navigating the journey and today's journey is not so far away but yes it is. We are going to Waianae which is 30 miles toward the sunset and the most beautiful sunsets and in winter the waves are fantastic yes but today we're not we don't get to go in the waves however for those of you that are way far away do take a chance to google Waianae and look at the waves and look at the sunset it is spectacular. Today we are going to visit with my new friend and you know I only talk to good friends now and she is so precious Melody is a what what is she called that she is a counselor counselor Waianae Vista no Holly Vista Waianae I got it right and yes and she is working out there it's such a lovely place and it is a facility beautiful beautiful facility for women and children women with children who are getting a new start a new way of life after going through a lot of unhappy things so Melody hi hi and honestly it is really a pleasure to have you and to have you talk about what is going on out there especially given where we are with this COVID-19 and what it is that you're doing out there how are the women handling this COVID-19 and what all tell me about you first let me share that you know I've got to tell you about my friend for the last 20 years has it been 20 years I've been part of the project for maybe 15 of those yes most of the time okay we have worked on the Martin Luther King peace poem project which is 21 years this year and Melody has been with us here on Oahu for the award ceremony which is absolutely fabulous and at some point we're going to have to talk to Melinda and talk about how this is going to affect us with the schools being closed however today but today we'll talk to you about what you're doing out there with Halle Vista Waianae so I am a yes I'm a therapist for Catholic Charities Hawaii and we have several programs going out in Waianae that I am part of I think what brought us together this time was Halawai Vista which is a low-income housing complex where I'm based out there I did a training video for them that got your attention we also have two other facilities out that way villages of Maidi and Maidi land which are transitional housing so we have a lot of families some individuals in part of those three programs so I'm representing all three of those today now what does Catholic Charities how do they work with you so I work for them they have a lot of services being offered out there so it's not just housing you know we have a lot of support services that we offer our residents we have counseling that's my piece we have a lot of case management employment preparation child care all kinds of services that are out there to support our residents so I'm part of a very holistic program for all of those residents okay I just as a caveat Catholic Charities is a nonprofit organization it is not the Catholic Church so we got I know most people don't don't know the difference um having been a Catholic for the last 80 years or more um the Catholic Church is when you talk about it is spelled with a capital C but the word Catholic means they're all encompassing and that's spelled with a small C just just so we get our grammar right so but I um we all know the work that the Charities has done with you but throughout the islands throughout everywhere that you go Catholic Charities are there and especially now when people are so desperate when they need food and shelter so I am honored really to talk to you about what they're doing and what you're doing so tell us more about the project well I'm honored to be a part of that project especially with COVID right now we have a lot going on especially at Halify Vista they have so many wonderful community partners are contributing food that uh we have to cord this effort to get all our volunteers together and get them on the same page which is why I did that video so we are getting food donations from Y&I Coast Comprehensive Health Center the Hawaii Food Bank Aloha Harvest DOE and Aloha Aina we have a lot of support that we're getting for our residents from word of life which is a a long time partner of ours in the community um Kapa'alana partners in development are helping us with educational resources for a little kiki and their parents so it's a very big collection of wonderful supporters um so we've still got all of our Catholic Charities folks out there foods on the ground um figuring out how to distribute the food it's quite a production it's not as simple as you know here we have food great somebody for that and with social distancing you can't have a mob of people all in one place right to pick up the food so it's quite a quite a delicate procedure to figure out all these logistics so meanwhile here I am in Honolulu I'm observing from afar well now you sent the cutest video about the training for your visitor volunteers so um let us take a look at your at your video okay honey and I'm a therapist for Catholic Charities serving holiday Vista in the Waianae community and on behalf of Catholic Charities I want to thank you so much for your service you are an inspiration to us you are indeed our helpers and we couldn't do this project without you so thank you thank you so much today what I'm going to share with you are few practices that we can use to keep ourselves safe and keep each other safe and our residents safe so I'm going to try and keep it light some of these things are things that you've probably already heard so I'm going to try and put my own spin on them and I'll be teaching you along with my family so hopefully it won't be boring this is not a flashy training video this is a quarantine style boot camp so hang tight and I hope I get to thank you in person soon take care okay so the first guideline we want to cover is BC so if you're not feeling well if you're sick at all we want you to stay home and get better Mr. Bear here showed up today copying and sneezing and he's got his dayquil in his Kleenex so we're gonna ask him to go home and rest so the second part of staying safe is wearing a mask so Governor E. Gay has actually made this a rule now anybody who's doing business outside the home interacting with people needs to wear a mask and it's a good idea what we know about masks is that they help us keep those droplets to ourselves those droplets that come when we cough or sneeze or even talk then they're not going to get spread to somebody else so basically my mask right now is helping keep Richard safe and Richard's mask is keeping me safe so thank you Richard let's not forget about our residents they need masks too these guys are all going to need masks why do you all need masks that's the thing about COVID one in four individuals who has COVID has no idea they're safe they don't have any symptoms at all and they can still pass it on so it's really important that we all have masks the volunteers the residents everybody so are we ready to go yes okay let's go get the food I still think it's the llama that has COVID-19 the llama let me see if you think the llama has it he looks shifty a relatively good news about coronavirus is we do have some things we can do we can wear a mask and we can social distance so rule number two is make space as you can see we've got our residents lined up about six feet apart like this yoga mat between ellie and kitty so it's not fun but for now that's kind of the way it's got to be so we're going to aim for six feet and six feet isn't so bad I mean we're six feet apart and we can still be social right Richard Richard and anyway um the good news about social distancing is it's a good opportunity for you to practice working with your kids on measurement so you can talk about feet yards all that kind of stuff so speaking of the kids Richard Richard what was the last time you checked on the kids we better go check on them okay what did you guys do today during distance learning oh we were practicing being six feet apart social distancing oh you guys have you forgotten already what you covered with dad today social distancing six feet this is not six feet you guys remember what a foot is how many inches misha shanti how many inches in a foot this is a foot remember yeah 12 inches we need how many of these misha six six six times 12 yeah yeah did you wash your hands and all your water next she's gonna tell me to say happy birthday twice I just called to say I love you I just called to say how much I care I just called to say I love you and I mean this from the bottom oh thank you that's better I think that was 20 seconds good job did you tell them the good news no ah okay so the good news about the coronavirus is that the only thing protecting it is a thin layer of grease and if you really soap hard let your hands foam up that's going to break down the grease coating and kill the virus does that mean we have pizza tonight yeah that means we have pizza tonight okay now we've gotten to our fourth rule don't touch in other words don't touch your face and I know you've heard a lot about that but that's because that's how the virus is transmitted right we touch something contaminating with the covid virus then we touch our mouth or our nose or our eyes and that's how the virus enters our body what people aren't talking about is what happens when you touch your mask so if you're out in the world getting exposed to covid potentially it's on the outside of your mask so I want to demonstrate what will happen if you touch the outside of your mask instead of just putting it on and off just using the little straps so to simulate covid I've used grape jelly that shows up nice and clear here on my mask so let's pretend I'm wearing my mask and it doesn't fit well so I'm adjusting it by the front more trying to get it right and oh no look what I've done so let's say now I go and I go wait thank you honey for looking out for me actually we're running out of jelly so the good news about coronavirus maybe being on your hands or on your mask or on a surface is that there's an easy solution to all three of those and that is to clean it's not fun but it works plus it's really attractive and a partner so if you want to meet a new partner or if you want to make your partner really happy all you got to do is scrub a little bit honey I'm done oh let's see wow it's so sparkly is it time for dessert yes it's time for dessert again everybody thank you so much for sticking with us through that whole video we hope you learned a little something maybe or at least had a chuckle or two we will get through this in the meantime we wish you a good project we will be thinking of you and sending you all of our aloha from Honolulu and I hope to see you very soon from my family to yours much aloha and a we hope I don't want the buy now let me see if I get this right you put it over the ear over the ear now this one is custom made do you have one from Gary I do I do now this is custom made so I guess I don't have to I figure out how to get it on don't I okay now I don't have to touch it because it is designed very well it comes that so you don't have to the touch and it has a little hook up here that allows you to breathe and it feels really comfortable so and these were made in China were they think so I don't I think so I think they're the KN95 so instead of the straight N95 it's the china version yeah so is so this is not made for medical but it's the step just before the medical people I think that one's a medical one that's you know it fits really nicely and it feels good and I can breathe and talk this is this is great so just to let you see that it's over the ear over the ear and it tucks in under the chin and over the nose so nothing very well yes oh yes it feels comfortable it's it feels better than the paper ones because the paper ones you do have to sort of get them to fit on your face tricky they are now I don't know what it's made of but it is quite comfortable so and now okay so tell us about the thing that's going on um that the video was made for and the cats are darling so thank you yes the cats were so the uh yeah that we have all of these um generous donations of food and so they're right now they've kind of figured out how to coordinate the different deliveries and distributions and now we need volunteers so we're still looking for volunteers so if anybody out there is available and would like to volunteer um we would love to have you um so the video is basically to train the volunteers since we can't do one training with a bunch of people in the room we had to come up with a way to do it sort of single file if you will so um with the video I think they're training you know individuals you know kind of one at a time when do you need volunteers uh yesterday like they've been doing this distribution I don't know how they've been doing it um our program director out there Fanchon Kim Young and Maria our social worker like I don't the two of them have somehow been doing this um but I I know they're going to need more help we need so if we if people that are watching that want to uh help how can they contact you or who do they contact I have a special number of uh Chia who will pass you through to the right um person and her number is 520-7721 so anyone that again 520-7721 and her name is Chia and she sure she gets you in touch with her with the right folks and gets you and then for people that aren't in Hawaii that's an 808 it's an 808 number um and we know we encourage you to visit our our website catholicteritieshawaii.org there's all information about all our programs there there's a link where you can donate and if you wanted to specifically direct your donation to white and I there's a little comment section where you could just type for white and I and the contribution will go straight to them oh and for anyone that wants to don't to volunteer uh let me tell you that since uh we are in quarantine the traffic is easy you can get out there without a hole oh my goodness what a blessing the traffic without the traffic it is just and it's such a beautiful ride it is a beautiful it is and I was the last time I was out there it was just perfect it felt like old Hawaii without all the traffic you know and the waves were gorgeous it was just just fabulous so it does feel that way it does anyone that wants to go out and volunteer again go to the website and the telephone number is we have the number on with us and now post it again at the end of the program the telephone number that you need to call and I am asked to take anybody now that we're closed down and shut in this would be a great opportunity to pack up the kids and put them in the car and drive out there and have a lovely lovely day it's just gorgeous so now but what else do you do as what else goes on out there your account as a therapist right now um you know we are we are a little bit challenged but uh it's it's good it's kind of making us get creative and innovative so for example we have a lot of kids out there who don't have computers they don't have technology um and you know I'm supposed to be working with a kids group there but they they don't have that technology so what we've been doing is um writing letters to one another old fashioned old fashioned letters yeah so that's how I'm getting to know the kids and then for the kupuna they also have a group and I think it's been really hard that they haven't been able to meet so what we're doing for them is calling them checking in on them we created a newsletter for them to try and you know bring us back together and we're going to try hosting a zoom version of the regular meetings uh this month in May so you know we're doing telehealth for our counseling clients um so most of them were meeting sort of like this on doxy me um and on the phone for folks who don't have computers or internet so we're we're busy what about making postcards uh for the children and the reason I say that is that this generation doesn't know what a postcard is that's true right yes they have no idea what a postcard is so not just letters but postcards and they can make them once show them what a postcard can look like with a drawing on one side and the message on the other they can good idea I might use that for my next activity thank you you know most most people this generation has no idea what a postcard is the only time they ever get a postcard is when somebody's campaigning and say vote for me which is interesting here in Hawaii right postcards we gotten from Hawaii yes uh my grandson one of my grandsons is in California and his class they asked for postcards from as many different places as they could and so I have sent them all these postcards from each island which meant because nobody else had a grandmother in Hawaii and but I was amazed that they did not know what postcards are yeah it's it's it's a it's an amazing thought actually I like it because so much of what we're doing is visual you know with the young kids they you know they can't write much to me so they're sending me pictures and they're already doing it yeah they're already doing that naturally and me too right so I I draw them pictures of me you know here with my cats doing my work from the computer just to give them a taste of you know what Melanie is like right now so yeah visuals are important these they're visual kids well I am too so and I'm not a kid yeah you are you're a kid at heart oh yeah well what's the point in growing up really yeah yeah so now okay directions how do we if the volunteers anybody that's volunteering to go and I'm encouraging everybody to go while the traffic is down and beautiful so how do we get there so um well first you want to communicate with us so we know about you and we can we can give you further directions on where to where to meet um and and you know what time and all that but you know basically you get on the Farrington highway going out toward Makaha and you just keep going till you hit white and that it's pretty easy to get there um but again you know we have a number you can call if you want to join us five two zero seven seven two one and Chia will make sure you get everything you need um for anyone needing assistance we have our main number for Catholic Charities which is five two one four three five seven or five two one help so anyone who needs our support that's where you would call or if you have other inquiries if you call that number you'll get routed to the appropriate department we have a lot of programs so do you need now you're you have food but what about other items do you need anything else definitely we you know now we now that we're going to have volunteers there and residents doing pick up we definitely need masks um it seems like everybody needs masks right now and we really um we really could use computers for those of our kids who can't access distance learning right now um that would be a wonderful gift if anyone out there has the means for that that would be uh a terrific help to us and uh now there's was run on toilet paper people were crazy what other supplies do you need well you know we're not going to turn that away um I know word of life has been really uh providing us with uh some of those things but I'm sure we could use more of those things they've been providing us with soap cleaning supplies toiletries I think Van Sean told me about an individual who needed a gas card to get to work because he didn't have enough money to buy gas and they came through with that for him it's they're getting very creative um so those that's paper for the children you know colored paper construction paper things like that just we're sure we're never going to turn that down once I get back there and I'm working with the kids group we're going to need all that because we do a lot of crafts um cooking so certainly contributing to our supplies fund would be wonderful um and clothing uh I don't know about the clothing but again if you call Chia that number I gave you she will probably have that information yeah well we are just about out of time but it's a pleasure visiting with you and I am so pleased that Catholic Charities is really helping out so well with these and uh most people have such a poor poor idea of the wine and I coast so I'm inviting everybody to take a drive out there and see how really lovely it is and what a beautiful facility you have and it is just absolutely lovely so again I want everybody to take a drive out especially as pretty as the day is today and just take a drive out there and take a little drive around and uh gas is cheap today anyway $3.35 or something like that well yeah well thank you for having me Marcia I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about what we're doing out there it really is uh it's inspiring to see what what's happening out there well um I am very proud of you and the work you're doing and you've always been such a wonderful person and always so willing to to help so this is great it's a perfect gift for you thank you and we will see you soon we have to leave yes and aloha and we'll see you next time thank you