[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 17980-17981]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 HONORING HO'OIPO DeCAMBRA, 2000 ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON COMMUNITY HEALTH 
                                 LEADER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PATSY T. MINK

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 12, 2000

  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the 
tremendous contributions of Ho'oipo DeCambra, Executive Director of 
Ho'omau Ke Ola, for her work to improve the health and well-being of 
her rural community in Wai'anae, Hawaii. Ho'oipo's inspired leadership 
and innovative programs led to her being named a 2000 Robert Wood 
Johnson Community Health Leader.
  Only ten people nationwide receive this prestigious award each year. 
The Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leader award, the nation's 
highest honor for community health leadership, includes an $100,000 
cash award--$95,000 goes to enhance the awardee's community health 
program and $5,000 is a personal award.
  Ho'oipo DeCambra has developed and implemented successful substance 
abuse treatment programs and a women's cancer project utilizing 
traditional Hawaiian values and healing practices to reach out to the 
Native Hawaiian community, which suffers from a high incidence of 
substance abuse and cancer. A long-

[[Page 17981]]

time social justice advocate, Ho'oipo became involved in local health 
care after seeing the effects that disease and drug addiction have had 
on the people of her own community.
  Troubled by the number of Hawaiian women with breast cancer, DeCambra 
pioneered the Women's Cancer Research Project, now called the Women's 
Health Network. The program teaches women and their families about 
breast and cervical cancers through ``kokua'' or help groups. The 
original study employed Hawaiian women with breast cancer in data 
collection and analysis.
  Ho'oipo DeCambra has since turned her talents and energy to helping 
people who suffer from drug addiction. She directs a substance abuse 
treatment program, Ho'omau Ke Ola, that uses traditional Native 
Hawaiian healing methods in concert with the very latest clinical 
practices to treat the largely Hawaiian population of the Wai'anae 
coast of the island of O'ahu. Ho'omau Ke Ola also provides transitional 
shelter and distributes food to residents in the community.
  Ho'oipo DeCambra previously served as chair of the board of the 
Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. She is a founding board 
member of Ke Ola O Hawai'i, an academic community partnership 
organization. She also sits on the board of the Hawai'i Health 
Foundation, which promotes a traditional Native Hawaiian diet, and 
serves on an ad hoc committee of the U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services' Office of Women's Health, Minority Women's Health Panel 
of Experts. Ho'oipo is also a published poet.
  I am pleased to have this opportunity to congratulate Ho'oipo and to 
thank her for devoting her considerable talents and boundless aloha to 
improving the lives of the people in her community and throughout the 
state.

                          ____________________