US Charity Awards Scholarships to Students in Micronesia

(July 31, 2007, Columbia, South Carolina) The Habele Outer Island Education Fund announced
today that it is awarding over $3,500 in high school scholarships to students from a remote and
underdeveloped Pacific Atoll in Micronesia.

Habele, a South Carolina based nonprofit, is comprised of former Peace Corps Volunteers and other
education-minded Americans with an interest in Micronesia, a Federation of islands in the central
Pacific formerly administered by the United States Department of the Interior.

The recipients are two girls aged 17 and 18 from the islands of Falalop and Asor on Ulithi Atoll in
Yap State. They will be attending classes at the all-girls Bethania High School in the Republic of
Palau.

One of the awards, the Oceanic Society Sea Turtle Scholarship, is being granted through the support
of the Oceanic Society in recognition of the community’s ongoing support for a local sea turtle
research and conservation program. The Society is a US based non-profit marine conservation group
involved in environmental expeditions and education in Micronesia and around the world. Like
Habele, the Oceanic Society recognizes the unique difficulties faced by students in the Outer Islands.

Neil Mellen, Habele’s founder explained,

“These isolated atolls in Micronesia face a gamut of social, political, and economic challenges. Their
remoteness and limited natural resources leave them dependent on government foreign aid which
encourages the expansion of an inefficient public-sector-based economy. The Secretariat of the
Pacific reports that fewer than a fifth of these islanders have access to acceptable sanitation and that
infant mortality rates are five times higher than those the United States.

“Expanding academic opportunity and promoting educational accomplishment is an essential first
step in promoting individual, island, and national sovereignty. Through scholarships to private
schools and material donations to public schools, Habele is working with the Outer Island
Communities to meet this goal.”

Mario Suulbech, a Habele volunteer who lives on the Island of Falalop, echoed Mellen’s optimism.

“These girls are the future of our islands. Sadly, some people here are still skeptical about the value of
education and the role of women in our changing traditions. These particular girls are working hard
to prove them wrong, to build a brighter future for their families, and our island community.”

The scholarship winners will travel to and from the school with money raised by their families, and
have signed a strict performance contract that ties their scholarships to academic targets.

Habele consists of donors and volunteers from throughout the United States and the Pacific. The
Fund has no paid employees and is still seeking support for its ongoing public school book drives.
Visit www.habele.org to learn more.