We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael P. Hassett & Chiara Collette Hassett, who co-founded and operate Friends of Tonga® Inc. We’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chiara and Michael. Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Friends of Tonga (FoT) is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting the Kingdom of Tonga. We co-founded FoT, with a group of former Peace Corps Volunteers and leaders in the Kingdom of Tonga, in 2018, after a category 4 cyclone devastated large swaths of the country. At the time, there was no direct way to support the communities we had served in as volunteers, so our group decided to take it upon ourselves to create a way to support local disaster relief efforts, drive greater awareness of Tonga, and cultivate an engaged community to support the country.

Since our founding, our small-nonprofit has had a major impact–especially since the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai volcanic eruption and tsunami that occurred in January of 2022. We were the first nonprofit to underwrite a disaster relief response and have invested over $500,000 in disaster relief services that have impacted 40% of the Tongan population, across every island group! This has included Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (W.A.S.H. services), food dissemination, vegetable propagation, and infrastructure projects.

Likewise, we also support educational and human development, including partnering with the Tonga Ministry of Education to address the key challenges of limited educational resources, few native English speakers, and the proliferation of less-than-ideal classroom settings. To address these challenges, we designed and implemented four successful programs 1) a scholarship program to cover the costs of high school tuition for needy students (over 100 scholarships to date); 2) a video read aloud library in which students, teachers and parents are allowed access to books in an area with limited resources; 3) a pen pal program that connects Tongan students with international classrooms to provide meaningful writing exchanges; and 4) the construction of the first cyclone and earthquake resistant kindergarten in the entire country.

Friends of Tonga has always viewed itself– and will always view itself– as a support to Tongan-driven community efforts. This can be seen in the way our programming has been designed and implemented, which is driven by community leaders and has to be formally requested. Likewise, our disaster relief to assist the Tongan communities is driven by Tongan organizations and local stakeholders that can best guide equitable and responsible resource allocation to target communities with the most need.

The past six years have been both incredibly challenging and rewarding. Though the work sometimes feels endless, our impact and  efforts have been recognized and lauded across the Peace Corps community, the Library of Congress, and the Tongan government. This culminated, in 2022, with having an audience with the Prime Minister of Tonga to present on our literacy programs!

What do you want people to remember about you?

Friends of Tonga’s story has never been about us as individuals, but instead is about the organization meeting the needs of our community. So with that lens in mind, we endeavor to be an organization that does not dictate what the people of Tonga need, but rather collaborates with local partners and supports Tongan-led activities and organizations.

Ultimately, we want our legacy to be an organization that outlives us (its original co-founders), and continues to support the people of Tonga until our services and programs are no longer needed. Until that time comes, we hope that our projects and programs continue to meet the needs of the Tongan population by supporting the recovery of impacted communities after crises occur, through improving literacy rates across every island group, increasing access to education and spaces for learning for every Tongan child, and by advocating for the Pacific Island communities who are the hardest hit by climate change.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

Tonga is considered the last Kingdom in the South Pacific, and considers itself one of the last authentic places to travel.

We recommend going from July to October, since this is the dry season and is a more mild temperature. This is also the time that humpback whales migrate through Tonga, so you can have the amazing experience of snorkeling with these beautiful animals!

Take some time to visit the different islands and soak up the sun and culture:

On the main island of Tongatapu, you should visit the market in the capital of Nuku’alofa, the blow holes in the village of Houma, and watch fire dancing in the community of Lavengatonga.

You can also take the shortest scheduled plane ride in the world to the island of ‘Eua, where you can hike through caves and forest, see ancient banyan trees and cliffs, and maybe the elusive ‘Eua parrot!

The Ha’apai island group has some of the country’s most pristine beaches and you can walk between sandy islands. Lastly, take a trip to low lying Vava’u where there are beautiful coral reefs and blue waters for snorkeling, diving, and sailing (Vava’u is a popular yachting destination).

Tongans are extremely friendly people and they love to share their culture. Make a friend and have them take you to church on Sunday to experience their incredible choirs, and then to have a traditional meal of lu (meat in coconut milk wrapped in taro leaves and cooked in an underground oven).

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

In Tonga, the word femolimoli’i translates to “everybody takes a share.” Our success is directly attributed to the many people and entities that take a share in our efforts. First and foremost, we have a committed group of board members and officers, who take the time out of their busy lives to help run this organization, on a completely volunteer basis. No one in our organization earns a salary, so we can provide the biggest value to our projects and programs in Tonga.

We also rely on our generous donors who have chosen to support Friends of Tonga, and who allow us to do the work we do.

Moreover, we rely on our many partners, across the globe, who support our work and allow us to maximize our impact. These include the Civil Society Forum of Tonga, Schools for Children of the World, Educators of America, The National Peace Corps Association, and United States Peace Corps, and the Ministry of Education in Tonga.

Lastly, if not for the Peace Corps, in Tonga, we would never have had the opportunity to live and work there, which was the spark and impetus for this organization. As an organization formed by returned Peace Corps volunteers, we credit much of our success to those who helped us as volunteers.

Website: https://www.friendsoftonga.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/friendsoftonga/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/friends-of-tonga/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/friendsoftonga

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