New Digital Hub Opens in Hoʻolehua

Stakeholders attended the grand opening of Molokai Digital Hub Sept. 25, including Faith Tuipulotu of the Molokai Homestead Farmers Alliance, in the middle, flanked by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke on the left, and state Sen. Lynn DeCoite. Contributed photo

By Léo Azambuja

A new space for Molokai residents to access high-speed Internet, print documents, learn how to use computers and even attend remote healthcare appointments opened last week.

“The Molokai Digital Hub has been a dream over the last several years,” said Rosie Davis, executive director of the Maui County Area Health Education Center on Molokai.

The grand opening of the facility at Lanikeha Community Center in Ho‘olehua was Sept. 25, during a ceremony attended by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and state Sen. Lynn DeCoite. On Oct. 1, Molokai’s first digital hub opened to the public. 

The facility was created to help close a digital gap on Molokai by providing residents with tools for online connectivity, learning and development, according to Davis.

“We have everything from computer literacy (classes), telehealth skills, digital literacy, everything from one-on-one and social media,” Davis said. “We have five desktops, four laptops and a printer.”

The idea of a digital hub at Lanikeha was born during the COVID-19 pandemic, when island residents were asking for a facility where they could learn how to do Zoom meetings, access the Internet for healthcare appointments or just keep in touch with their family members.

At that time, she said, the community center offered a class teaching to use iPads to access the Internet. Most of those first students were older residents who only owned a phone, and didn’t even know how to turn on an iPad.

That’s when Davis said she found out there was a big need on the island for computer literacy classes and other related services. A year later, AHEC secured a $30,000 grant to hire three contractors to come to the community center and offer one-on-one classes on refurbished laptops. 

“In about a year-and-a-half, we had 253 people that had attended the classes, and now they were asking for a higher level (of classes),” Davis said.

Additionally, telehealth — assessing health care services through the Internet — also became “a big part of helping the community,” and it wasn’t just beneficiaries, she said, it was the entire community.

The new Molokai Digital Hub has been “a blessing,” Davis said, possible through a $5,000 donation from Spectrum and another donation of nearly $9,000 from the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. Other partners include Maui County AHEC, Molokai Public Library, Kuha‘o Business Center and Ka‘ala Souza from Māpunawai.

Davis said since the facility opened, there has been a good flow of visitors, and there will be more students joining soon.

“People love to come to the workshops,” she said.

The Molokai Digital Hub is at Lanikeha Community Center at 2200 Farrington Ave. in Ho‘olehua. It is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.