Everyday, Burners Without Borders transforms communities through innovative disaster relief programs and community initiatives that make a lasting impact.
Maui Fire Relief
Location: - Map It STATUS: Active
*The BWB team will be in Black Rock City and out of office August 21sth through Sept. 11th. Please be patient with our response times.*
**If you are interested in donating to Maui relief, please do not donate to Burning Man Project or BWB at this time, directly donate to the projects below**
Several wildfires erupted across Maui on Aug. 8, 2023 as Hurricane Dora passed south of the Hawaiian islands. Burners have sprung into action to help. Two Hawaii Regional Contacts, Raina Studer and Trey “dr.Tre” Callender are supporting local organizing efforts (hawaii@burningman.org) while, BWB Co-Founder Carmen Mauk is living in Maui and doing direct relief work. You can find more regular updates on the BWB-Hawaii FB page. Here’s a roundup of ways to support initiatives and the Maui community:
1) If you are on Maui doing recovery work, you are eligible to apply for the Resilience and Recovery Fund through The Pollination Project. Please share with anyone doing mutual aid on the island. We understand that even an easy application can be HARD when you’re working in a crisis. Please post in the BWB Hawai’i Facebook page if you would like to partner with someone to help support with a low-barrier grant application on their behalf.
2) Maui Rapid Response (MRR) created a donation link for BWB Maui Fire Relief. Please use this PayPal link below for the BWB Maui Fire Relief. Please note that Grants Central Station is MRR’s 501c3 nonprofit fiscal sponsor which enables all donations to be tax-deductible.
3) Carmen Mauk, co-founder of Burners Without Borders is on the ground in Maui. With her expertise in disaster relief operations, Carmen has learned that getting funds directly to survivors is the priority immediately following a disaster. She has shared the most pressing need is for fuel and for the unhoused, which is best achieved through gift cards. Any funds donated to Carmen’s Venmo or PayPal account will go directly to survivors most in need in the form of gas cards and visa cash cards. She will personally deliver them.
Venmo:@Carmen-Mauk
PayPal: Opentowellbeing@yahoo.com
4) Raina Studer, Former Oahu Regional Contact (RC), Former Big Island RC, living on Maui is accepting Amazon deliveries for distribution to fire victims.
Please send deliveries to:
Raina Studer
40 Leie Street
Makawao Hawaii 96768
Most needed:
Diapers
Formula
Adult diapers
Feminine hygiene products
5) If you’d like to get involved please like and follow the Burners Without Borders Hawai’i Facebook page.
6) Burners for Maui Fire Long Term Recovery
Aloha Burning Man community. As you know, Maui has been devastated by the deadly fires that ravaged our island on August 8. We are reaching out to the Burning Man community to request your help with rebuild projects when our community is ready. This recovery will take many years and will most likely start sometime this winter.
If you are interested in offering your skills on Maui, please complete this form so that you can be added to our database.
Photo from Carmen Mauk on August 14th, 2023.
“Friends, I am so grateful for all of your generous donations. We have raised $6100 in just 5 days!
That buys us 122 $50 gift cards that go directly to fire survivors.
This week will be the toughest yet for Maui. At least 1000 people are still missing and only 3% of the burned area has been searched. This means that the current 96 person death toll will rise and extinguish hope for so many who are wondering if their loved ones made it out alive. This is a grim and excruciatingly painful moment here. But the light you are bringing into people’s lives with your donations is so helpful and appreciated by every family who receives these gift cards. I will keep gifting these cards for as long as the donations come in. There is so much love here and I thank you.”
Update from Carmen Mauk August 16th, 2023
So far I have raised $8914 on my personal Venmo and PayPal accounts. That enables us to buy 178 $50 gift cards. I am so grateful for all of you who have donated! The west side of the island opens up today. I haven’t been over there yet due to the restrictions, but plan to in the coming week.
I would like to get the remaining gift cards into the hands of the fire survivors who never left that side since the fires began.
The relief effort for Maui will look very different from disasters that have occurred on the mainland due to geography as well as limited space and infrastructure to set up temporary shelters. There is also an intact hotel infrastructure that will enable survivors to secure housing quickly and most likely up to 18 months. The toxic cleanup will require specialized skills and equipment, which means that volunteers will not be able to help clean up as we have done after hurricanes. Once the toxic debris has been removed, the rebuilding can begin. I am hoping that we can invite volunteers to help families rebuild when the time comes.
One thing I am working on is discovering how we can support the Hawaiians in their fight to prevent land grabs from occurring from the outside, preserve the cultural history of Lahaina, and rebuild as they envision. Although this disaster is very different from Standing Rock, I think we can learn a lot from that movement. That Indigenous Peoples-led effort, with non-native people supporting them from behind, is what I would love to see here. There is a role for volunteers, but I think we need to engage in conversation with the Hawaiian community and ask what they need from us.
Ultimately, it would be great if a new narrative of supporting and amplifying the voices of native peoples post-disaster could emerge and create a template for future disasters.
I consider myself a guest of the Hawaiian people here and want to respect and support their desires as they begin to envision their future. Thanks again for all of your support. It means the world to me and to those who lost everything to the fires. Best, Carmen
