Aloha! My name is Jeni Balanay. The recent March 2026 Kona Low Storms have severely damaged my farm and home in Waialua, O'ahu. These funds will be used for urgent needs to help restore my farm and help keep me safe as I recover from this devastating loss.

I started farming at a young age; my mother began teaching me when I was only 7 years old. She had 2 jobs—farmer and restaurant cook, but she never failed to take care of us. She ran about 6 acres of land and gave my brother & I half an acre to learn to grow something. I was never as good as her, but I did learn a lot and eventually grew to love the life I lived as a farmer. In addition to farming, she also taught us essential skills like how to start a wood fire and use that to cook. For the past 45+ years, I’ve used all the skills she taught me to become the farmer I am today and take care of about 4 acres of land. I take great care of my land and my crops—tomato, cucumber, string beans, long beans, you name it. I am proud to share my work and provide for my community by sharing my vegetables at farmers markets. They have always loved how fresh it is, and that brought me joy.

However, these last few weeks of the Kona Low storms has left me at a complete loss. 2 cars, 4 generators, 2 water pumps—all equipment and machinery that I use for the farm land rendered unusable and need to be replaced. The last round of flooding & rain was the worst of it. My home on the property became completely flooded—my clothes, bed, important documents, everything I own & love now lives under mud. Just thinking about it brings me to tears. I have never felt this kind of loss before. I can’t stand to look at my land in its current state because it only brings me feelings of despair and devastation.

Where do I start when I’ve lost everything? I don’t know where to even begin. Sometimes I feel like giving up, but I know that’s not what my heart wants. I had great plans for my land—I wanted to turn it into a banana and mango farm one day. Just two weeks before the storms came, I had planted hundreds of mango tree starters in the ground; the soil was perfect, and it took me so long to get ahold of these starters. I had even started planting papaya and coconut trees. Much bigger crops than I had previously cultivated. Now, they are gone with the storm. One of my biggest goals crushed in an instant. Who knows when the soil will be fit for re-planting again?

With this, I am humbly asking for any support from my community as I am forced to start all over again. I would love nothing more than to return to providing for my community. To return to some sense of normalcy and to return to what I love and know best—farming. I am beyond grateful for the help I’ve been given thus far, and I know that my work is far from over. But I would just like to say thank you. Thank you for considering my story. Thank you for reading. Thank you for sharing, and most of all, thank you any donation, big or small. I greatly appreciate it.