Women’s center launched new website

Posted on Feb 7, 2010 in Atawe Web Design, Blog

Happy to announce the successful launch of the new website for the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center (www.wawc.org), a local “strength-based family resource center.” This is an especially gratifying project because my lovely wife Desha is a member of the Board of Directors for this great organization. From the start it looked like it was going to take forever to get it done. Thanks to Cita who rallied the troops and we were able to launch their site.

Atawe Design: Empowering Micronesia Globally

Posted on Jun 11, 2009 in Atawe Web Design, Blog, Projects

What is Atawe Design? Atawe Design is my website design venture focusing on the empowerment of non-profit organizations, grassroots community movements, social activists, schools, and small businesses in the developing Pacific island nation of Micronesia and beyond. A believer in social entrepreneurship I use this venture to raise funds for other health, educational, and social programs in Micronesia.

What is our goal? Atawe Design was founded with the goal of using web design to help connect the local needs of non-profit organizations in Micronesia with global resources.

What we believe? We believe that technology can be used to positively affect the organizations whose mission is to bring positive development to the Pacific island nations. We believe that these small developing Pacific island nations have a rightful place in the vastly globalized society. While having a website does not in itself solve their problems, we believe it does give a voice and a channel by which the local needs can be connected with the vast array of global resources.

What does the word “atawe” mean? Atawe Design was inspired by the Pacific island value of humble service. The name, Atawe (a-tah-way), comes from the outer island Chuukese language meaning “to empower others.” Although we are open to helping all non-profit organizations, we aspire to help the needy organizations and small businesses in the Pacific islands of Micronesia.

What is our design philosophy? Our design philosophy goes beyond simple and functional web designs; we focus on building partnerships that foster sustainable self-empowerment of people who themselves are agents of change in their local communities.

How did it all start? The concept of using technology to affect social change began in 1998. At the time I was working as Program Coordinator for Youth Together, Inc. , a California-based youth activism leadership development organization. We needed a website for to reach the youth leaders at Skyline High School, but couldn’t afford the high cost of a web design professional. So I started reading books and tinkering with html codes and bam we had a web presence. The success of that first design led to Atawe Design to focus specifically on Micronesian empowerment initiatives.