KA'U MARSHALL ISLANDS STUDENTS GET GRANT FOR ANTI-DRUG PUSH

The students of the Ka'u High School Marshall Islands Nuclear History
Education Project have received a $2,000 Healing Our Island grant,
which will aid them in spreading the anti-drug message in their community.

Their teacher, Nancy Hunter, has helped them to organize this effort,
an extension of their project to learn and share the history of
nuclear testing in the Pacific.

The Healing Our Island grant has enabled the group to print flyers and
T-shirts in both Marshallese and English to be distributed among peers
in Ocean View, to friends and relatives around the Big Island, and to
people they met on their recent trip to Washington, D.C.

The T-shirts carry the message "Kememej Manit Kein Ad, Jolak Men Ko
Renana Im Rakajour," translated as "Remember Marshallese Culture,
Reject Drug Culture."

The anti-drug message is particularly meaningful to the mission of the
Nuclear History Education Project. From 1946 to 1958, the United
States carried out 67 nuclear bomb tests in Enewetak and Bikini atolls
in the Marshall Islands, 2,300 miles west of Hawaii. These tests, in
what was called the Pacific Proving Grounds, carried the destructive
force of 8,530 Hiroshima-sized bombs.

The radiation from these atomic and hydrogen weapons caused widespread
illness and suffering among the Marshallese people, and many cancers
and other health problems continue due to the lingering radiation on
several islands.

Both those bombs of yesterday and the drugs that surround people today
destroy health and bring only misery and grief, and effects of their
toxins and chemicals will be with us evermore.

The group notes that their anti-drug message is well-received due to
its authenticity.

The Nuclear History Education Project students traveled in April to
Washington, D.C., as the guests of American University to meet
students, professors, senators, representatives and visit the embassy
of the Marshall Islands.

They are grateful to Hawaii County for support of its project, and
also acknowledge the generous help of OceanView-based printer Bolo.ink
Screenprinting for their contribution.

The two-sided flyers which explain this connection between Marshall
Islands nuclear history and the group's anti-drug message are
available from Hunter at Ka'u High.

Schools, churches or other civic groups wanting copies to distribute
may contact the group c/o Nancy Hunter, P.O. Box 529, Pahala HI 96777.