The death of a social worker is inspirational

Siwian Nickepwi, 17, closed her eyes and walked into a dark place on Wednesday during a calming activity for Adult Friends for Youth, an organization that redirects high-risk young people.

“It’s midnight. It’s cold,” Nickepwi told Titi Takai, who leads the AFY school counseling group at President William McKinley High School, more commonly known as McKinley High School. imagined those we lost, their laughter echoing.”

Nickepwi’s vision is representative of AFY, whose mission since 1986 has been to give hope to young people in their darkest times. She said children need “a dad figure or a mum figure – someone to be there when you don’t have anyone”.

That’s why the fatal shooting just over a year ago of Malakai Maumalanga, director of AFY’s reorientation services and popular mentor, was the nonprofit’s darkest moment. lucrative. But it also gave AFY the opportunity to use Maumalanga’s story to prove that moving beyond the pain of the past can build a better future.

Known as Mo, Maumalanga was a teenage member of the Cross Sun gang, which normalized harassment of others, street fights, drive-by shootings and organized crime. As an adult, he turned his life around and worked as the face of the AFY to ensure other high-risk youth didn’t make the same mistakes.

Maumalanga was shot dead in his multi-generational home in Aiea at 9.45pm on March 27, 2021, just 10 days after his 45th birthday. He was found dead in the carport of his home with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body.

The crime, which police have described as second degree murder, remains unsolved.

Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said, “This matter remains an open investigation. No arrests were made. Anyone with information should contact HPD or CrimeStoppers.

Despite the lack of progress in the investigation, the non-profit AFY, which operates like a family, has found a way forward for the troubled children Maumalanga counseled and a growing stream of new children with exacerbated problems by the pandemic.

Deborah Spencer-Chun, president and CEO of AFY, said the death of Maumalanga, whom she considered a son, left a void at AFY. But she said his death also inspired staff to set the bar high for Maumalanga – realizing that every customer could also be someone who is capable of possibilities that defy the limitations of their place of origin.

Spencer-Chun advised Maumalanga as a teenager, standing by him after he was arrested at age 18 in connection with a gang-related drive-by shooting. Maumalanga was not convicted of the shooting, but went to jail for the weapon.

When he came out, Spencer-Chun invited Maumalanaga to live with his family. She also encouraged him to get a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work and to work for AFY.

Spencer-Chun still remembers a pivotal moment in Maumalanga’s transition when she asked him, “Where do we go from here?”

It’s a question Spencer-Chun said Maumalanga uses frequently in her own work with troubled youth. It’s also a question she’s been asking herself and the AFY since Maumalanga’s death.

In the end, Spencer-Chun said, it comes down to love, which is how the AFY motivated Maumalanga to build a new life.

“Mo had been in so much trouble that he was enrolled in almost every school from Kalani to Waipahu. At some point the family took him back to Tonga,” she said. “When he came back , he struggled with people labeling him. He was angry. He felt no love. Love was the part we were trying to squeeze out of him. We knew he had it in him.

Love is the glue that kept AFY’s close-knit group of employees coming to work despite their loss. They have found strength in pain and are digging deep to end the violence, keep children in school, and deal with the negative impacts of the pandemic’s social and economic disruption.

“We need to connect children to their hearts,” Spencer-Chun said. “The pandemic has angered many children. The angrier they are, the harder we have to work.

Mufi Hannemann, president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association, said the AFY should be one of the district’s social services partners as soon as the “Weed and Seed” law enforcement program will arrive in Waikiki.

Hannemann plans to revisit helping the AFY secure office space in Waikiki so it can prevent crime by providing on-site counseling services to troubled youth. Spencer-Chun is also raising money for a mobile outreach van, which the AFY plans to dub “The Mo,” so children can get services in their own communities.

“Their biggest challenge will be funding,” he said. “HLTA has tried to help the AFY through the annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk, but they could use more government and other funding.”

Hannemann said Maumalanga’s knowledge and credibility has earned him the respect of the Visitor Public Safety Coalition. They were grateful when Maumalanga mobilized AFY resources to help reduce youth violence in Waikiki, he said.

“Unfortunately Mo has passed away, but he provides a lot of motivation for those left behind,” Hannemann said. “They’re always at the top of their game, and we can’t do ‘Weed and Seed’ in Waikiki without them. The AFY can look the kids straight in the eye and say, ‘You can’t fool me. There’s There’s a better way. There’s a better life out there. Let’s reverse it.'”

Making Hawaii safer and creating more opportunities for children motivates Maumalanga’s widow, Lisa Tamashiro Maumalanga, to continue the work they have done together. She met her husband at the association, where they worked together for 11 years.

“I know a lot of people are still asking what’s going on with the investigation,” Tamashiro Maumalanga said. “For me personally, I don’t really think about what happened.

“I know for some they just want justice or whatever they want to call it. But it’s not about that,” she said. “It’s about who he was as a person and what he gave to the world. How do we honor that part of it? The answer is through love and kindness.

Tamashiro Maumalanga said she and the children she shared with Maumalanga found a safe place to heal at AFY. When emotions run too high, she escapes to Maumalanga’s old office, where her presence is still felt.

There’s a shelf in his office where the clothes he shared with the kids who had job and school interviews still hang. On the door are photos and notes Mo received from former clients whose lives were cut short. A memorial with a photo of his willing smile hangs on the wall outside the office entrance.

“Children are really protective of this space. We are turning his office into a staff activity room so we can all use it,” said Tamashiro Maumalanga.

Jacob Iose, a 16-year-old from AFY’s McKinley High counseling group, said he enjoyed visiting Maumalanga’s office. Iose said these visits connected him to the fun he and other children had with Maumalanga, who took them to places like the beach, restaurants and bowling.

“We would tease him about his bald head,” said Iose, who appreciated light-hearted banter but also relished the opportunity to tackle difficulties.

He is forever grateful for Maumalanga’s help in securing Section 8 housing for his brother.

“When my brother was on the street, I worried if I was going to see him tomorrow,” Iose said. “Now I know they have a house, and I don’t care. It was a big thing.

Ekibo Lucky, a 15-year-old member of AFY’s McKinley High counseling group, said he would not forget the solid advice Maumalanga passed on to him.

“He told us to stay out of Waikiki on Halloween. He kept us off the streets,” Lucky said. .”

Freddy Shomour, a 17-year-old from AFY’s McKinley High counseling group, said Maumalanga helped him become more confident so he could overcome his “anti-social” moods.

“He was like, ‘Don’t think about it, just do it,'” Shomour said.

Maumalanga’s influence has spread to children across the island, said AFY redirection specialist Jackie Espejo, who has taken over his old counseling groups from Kaimuki High School and the school. Farrington Secondary.

She is particularly proud that the Farrington High Group, which included 10 seniors at the time of the Maumalanga shooting, all graduated.

“They actually used what happened to him as motivation because they wanted to make him proud,” Espejo said. “They even took their graduation photos at Mo’s grave.”

Nickepwi said she also visited Maumalanga’s grave.

“I told him what was going through my head at the time,” she said. “I was able to share what I was still going through.”

The pressure is on for Nickepwi, who needs to get good grades as she aims to become a lawyer. When she struggles, she turns to Takai, who is now in her cousin Maumalanga’s old role as Director of AFY Redirection Services.

This is not how Takai would have wanted to be promoted, but she said she was grateful to Maumalanga for grooming her.

“He was in my life for a long time. He was watching me while my parents were working. I remember when I was being dropped off at his house, he was like, ‘If you’re hungry, you can go get yourself something,'” said takai.

Despite his tough love mentality, Takai said Maumalanga never misses an opportunity to say, “You can do it.”

Thanks to what he taught her, she knows she can overcome her grief.

“We have continued to help the children we serve grow into better individuals as Mo would have wanted them to – to give them an opportunity and a chance,” she said. “Seeing that they don’t give up drives me to keep challenging them to reach their full potential. They can have a bright future. We will get there one step at a time.

HELP AFY BY BUYING ‘THE MO’

Adult Friends for Youth wants to purchase a mobile outreach vehicle, dubbed ‘The Mo’, which would serve as a mobile hub to conduct street outreach to help rebuild the lives of high-risk youth and establish schools and safer communities.

The Mo is named after the late Malakai “Mo” Maumalanga, Director of AFY Redirection Services, who was killed in his home on March 27, 2021.

It would be equipped with technologies such as laptops, iPads and Wi-Fi, as well as office supplies essential for carrying out educational missions.

The AFY says that without street awareness, many young people would fall through the cracks and fall into the devastating cycle of juvenile to adult incarceration.

Donate to afyhawaii.networkforgood.com/projects/137668-the-mo-mobile-outreach.