Founded in 1993 to meet the community demand for health services for the homeless, poor and underserved, Mlama I Ke Ola Health Center (MIKOHC) recently completed renovations on its new main facility and clinic at the old Ooka Supermarket. This modern, green facility provides significantly more space for patient care and allows providers to deliver the full range of health care services needed by Mauis rapidly growing community. Maui is an island with a land base of 727 square miles and a total population nearing 120,000. There is no public transportation system to link the many sparsely populated rural communities of the island to resources in central Maui.

Migrants from the Freely Associated States; generally transient and uninsured population; large HIV caseload. Maui county has the highest substance abuse rate in Hawaii, and the highest tuberculosis rate in the nation. It also has a high incidence of hepatitis B, diabetes, hypertension, gout, asthma, bronchitis/emphysema, and family violence. MIKOHC sees a large number of patients with chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension, substance abuse and its resultant health problems, high-risk pregnancies, inadequately immunized children and others with acute and episodic conditions and infections. Thirty-five percent of MIKOHCs patients suffer social or behavioral problems that require professional intervention.

Mlama I Ke Ola Health Center is supported by a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration Health Center Program Award, and is also funded in part by grants from the State of Hawaii Department of Health, the County of Maui Department of Housing and Human Concerns.