Trump Administration Awards Guam Additional $112,000 in FY 2020 Technical Assistance Funds

WASHINGTON – The Trump Administration announced an additional $112,000 in fiscal year 2020 grant funding to benefit Guam provided 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 on Guam and repair the captive-breeding facility for two of Guam’s indigenous birds that are critically endangered and are provided in addition to the nearly $3 million in Technical Assistance Program fiscal year 2020 funds announced for Guam earlier this year.

“Secretary Bernhardt and I are pleased to be able to provide additional support to Guam that will help strengthen local non-profit organizations that work with freely associated state and Chamorro populations and repair the captive-breeding facility for the ko’ko’ and the sihek,” said Interior Assistant Secretary, Insular and International Affairs, Douglas W. Domenech.

Fiscal year 2020 Technical Assistance Program (TAP) funding totaling $112,000 will be provided for the benefit of Guam as follows:

• Mañe’lu, the Micronesian Resource Center One-Stop Shop - $80,000 will be used by the Guam non-profit organization Mañe’lu to sponsor and expand leadership training and education opportunities necessary to strengthen the capacity of nonprofit organizations on 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. 
• Guam Department of Agriculture - $32,000 will 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 are critically endangered.  

The Assistant Secretary, Insular and International Affairs, @ASIIADomenech, and the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) carry out the Secretary of the Interior’s responsibilities for the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Additionally, OIA administers and oversees federal assistance under the Compacts of Free Association to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. Follow and “like” OIA on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/InsularAffairs.

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