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Guam is granted $112K more to develop capacity of NGOs, protect 2 Guam birds
WASHINGTON, D.C.—An additional $112,000 in fiscal year 2020 grant funding has been awarded to Guam through the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs’ Technical Assistance Program. The funds will provide training and capacity development for non-profit organizations in Guam and repair the captive-breeding facility for two of Guam’s indigenous birds that are now extinct in the wild. The new funds are on top of the nearly $3 million in Technical Assistance Program fiscal year 2020 funds announced for Guam earlier this year.
A total of $80,000 will be used by the Guam non-profit organization Mañe’lu, the Micronesian Resource Center One-Stop Shop, to sponsor and expand leadership training and education opportunities necessary to strengthen the capacity of nonprofit organizations in Guam that work closely with freely associated state and Chamorro populations, including their own staff. Two such non-profit organizations that work with Mañe’lu are Victim Advocates Reaching Out, which works to provide crisis response to victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, and West Care Pacific Islands, which trains youth-serving organizations about trauma-informed care, teen coping, and positive youth development.
A total of $32,000 will go to the Guam Department of Agriculture to be used to repair and replace fencing around the captive-breeding facility for two of Guam’s indigenous birds: the Guam Rail (Hypotaenidia owstoni), or the ko’ko’ as known in Chamorro, and the Guam Kingfisher (Todiramphus cinnamominus), or sihek. The fencing will keep out snakes and feral animals to help ensure continued breeding of these two rare birds, indigenous to Guam, that no longer exist in the wild. (PR)
