Magnificent Non-Profit: Ka’a’ahi Women’s Shelter

Neela, Gloria Moe and Lali Lai Hipp, colleagues at IHS Women’s Shelter

Still & Moving Center’s Operations Manager, Neela Vadivel, currently volunteers at the shelter one afternoon a week. The shelter is the only place in Honolulu where women and their children can come directly off of the street. It’s a community shelter, and they strive to be hospitable, safe, and welcoming. Providing respect and support is high on their priority list. The shelter aims to provide individuals and families with short-term stabilization that leads to permanent housing.

After women arrive at the shelter, staff members take care of the next steps: housing placement support, access to healthcare, employment support, case management, daily meals, mail service, laundry facilities and storage space.

This organization provides meals to sheltered and unsheltered homeless three times a day, seven days a week. The donations for food come from churches, private groups, Aloha United Way and Hawaii Foodbank’s Emergency Food Program. The shelter serves up to 300 per seating (or 900 meals a day) at a cost of about $1 per meal.

On the last Thursday of each month, the shelter hosts a food drop and distribution at Honolulu’s Sumner Men’s Shelter. You can bring your canned foods to Sumner Men’s Shelter to help low income community members restock their pantries with produce and canned goods.

The shelter also runs a Kokua Corner – a reclaimed items store, where people are welcome to shop at no cost for clothing, household items, toiletries, etc.

You can always help the shelter directly in 5 ways:

• Donate clothing and household items
• Bring canned foods to share
• Donate your time
• Donate your money
• Participate in Still & Moving Center’s 2020 Deep Joy Challenge.

Please join Still & Moving Center in supporting the precious women of this community and their families.

Ka’a’ahi Women’s Shelter