CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Participants in a Youth Crime Prevention course yesterday at the Honolulu Police Academy in Waipahu learned leadership skills and how to identify crime. Peru Lopes, left, Logovae Afuola, Kawai Rego, Chrischelle Kea, Jack Oiveros, Shay Kanehailua and Maylene Leoso took part in a communications exercise.
A Nanakuli woman wiped away a tear as she watched her 12-year-old nephew map out areas where people do drugs in the housing project they live in.
CORRECTION
Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2003Moki Rego is Janice Kahawai's niece. This article incorrectly reported that she was Kahawai's nephew. Also, Kahawai has had six foster children, one of whom she adopted. She did not have any children of her own as incorrectly stated.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.
The exercise was part of a workshop yesterday to teach young people who live in public housing how to spot crime and make their neighborhoods a better place to live.
"I just want the best for all our kids," said Janice Kahawai, who has raised six foster children and five of her own children at Nanakuli Homes. "We gotta teach them how to make the community safe for themselves."
Moki Rego, Kahawai's nephew, believes crime is a big problem at Nanakuli Homes.
"There's gambling and stealing," he said. "In people's houses, they do ice and smoke pakalolo. We're pretty much surrounded by crime."
Seventeen-year-old Bernie Afuola agrees that crime is everywhere.
"Something should be done about it. ... I feel that we should do more things to stop crime so when younger generations come, it won't provoke them to do crime," she said.
Afuola is already a member of the Kalihi community's volunteer patrol group. She, along with a group of about 15 community members, walk through the streets of Kalihi from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. to "keep the streets safe," she said.
Afuola participated in yesterday's workshop because "there are people doing drugs and alcohol."
"They could be our friends," she said. "I don't wanna see them do that to themselves."
The 75 participants, ages 9 through 19, came to the workshop from public housing projects in Nanakuli, Wahiawa, Puuwai Momi and Kalihi. Through exercises, skits and videos, they learned leadership skills and how to identify crime.
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Michael Sandovar, 13, held up a diagram of Wahiawa Terrace yesterday to help show areas in the housing development where various criminal activities occur.
In one exercise, the young people were shown the scene of a getaway after a crime for 10 seconds and then asked to give details of what they saw.
The first two days of the workshop involved training adults who would be responsible for training the children, said Bill Stansberry, who flew in from Ohio as a Youth Crime Watch representative.
Youth Crime Watch is a nationwide program that sends representatives across the nation to train children in crime prevention, Stansberry said. Its purpose is to involve children in the community, he added.
"Youths care about what's going on in their neighborhoods," Stansberry said. "These kids are here because they want to be here."
This workshop was the second Youth Crime Watch project to take place in Hawaii, according to Stansberry. The first workshop occurred in January on the Big Island.
Kahawai, who is also the president of the community center at Nanakuli Homes, worries about crime because of its influence on children.
"I want the kids to remember that this is their place," she said. "Whatever things they don't want in the neighborhoods, they have a right to say something about it."
