At Our Houses, We Reach Out to Help Others
About Our Organization
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Hawaii, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, created in 1997 to expand the positive impact of Hawaii’s Ronald McDonald House® (RMH) on the communities served. The House, which opened in 1987, has been and will always be RMHC-HI’s cornerstone program. The mission of RMHC-HI is to “Provide a home-away-from-home for seriously ill children and their families and to develop programs and partnerships aimed at improving the lives of children in Hawaii and the Pacific.” In short, RMHC-HI keeps families together when they need each other most so that they can do the most to nurture each other. No other Hawaii organization is set up to do what RMHC-HI does. Much of its success can be credited to the community, not only for monetary contributions but also the thousands of hours of personal time given by hundreds of committed RMHC-HI volunteers. Volunteerism is essential in achieving the RMHC-HI mission.
RMHC-HI operates three facilities to assist families that have children with serious health conditions. Two residential facilities support those compelled to fly to Oahu for critical medical treatments not available on their home island. For many, an ocean literally separates them from their child’s desperately needed attention. This includes Hawaii’s Neighbor Islands, and other Pacific locales such as Guam, Saipan, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia. Lengths of stay vary widely at the overnight facilities depending on diagnosis but generally range from several days to several months. The overnight facilities strive to foster emotional, spiritual, and compassionate support to all who live within.
The third facility is an in-hospital respite center–the Ronald McDonald House Family Room–which serves immediate family members of inpatient children at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children (KMCWC), giving the highest priority to those families with children in the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units. The Family Room enables RMHC-HI to assist Oahu families.