Program Updates from Yap

Yap TASIK Update: April 2024

Weloy Youth & Sports Organization 

The group has decided that the Nimpal group consisting of two villages which are Okaw and Kaday will take on the activities of rope making, gardening, and/or taro patching of staple food. The main activities to be done are teaching the youth in the communities the steps in making local ropes that are in different sizes and have different uses. So, the boys and elderly man will make start by cleaning and clearing debris where the coconut burial site is before burying the copra that will be used for rope making. 

The reason why the communities chose rope making is because it has many uses, and it signifies so many cultural and traditional meanings and ways of living for each individual. The ropes that will be made will be used for making fish ware, grass skirts for gardening, and taro patches. 

They’ve laid out a plan to commence the burial of coconuts that will be used for the rope making at the end of April and burial usually takes up to 4 months and it’s ready. Within the four months, the communities will be working on gardening and taro patching, teaching, and learning different ways of preparing, planting, and harvesting local food from the garden and taro patches. Communities are looking at having a harvest of both local food and fish as the end product. 

Kids of Ruu Community 

The kids of Ruu community will continue with learning and teaching the exchange of loom making and machi as well as improving the loom for easy to work with and easy to carry from one place to another. They are planning on having some activities in the coming weekends. Machi is special and important to the KORC group because they are only made from the outlying island where they came from, and no other island does the Machi.