Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs Announces $1.8 Million for the Four Atoll Healthcare Program in the Marshall Islands

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) has

announced $1,876,297 in fiscal year (FY) 2022 Technical Assistance Program (TAP) funding to

the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Ministry of Health and Human Services for the Four

Atoll Healthcare Program. The program provides primary healthcare services for communities

from the four nuclear-affected atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap, and Utrok in the Marshall

Islands.

“This funding provides important preventive and screening healthcare services support each year

to the peoples of four atolls in the Marshall Islands that were affected by the U.S. nuclear testing

program from 1946 to 1958. We are pleased to announce that this year’s funding includes the

addition of vital dental services in these communities,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary for

Insular and International Affairs Keone Nakoa. “OIA provides this continued support on

behalf of the U.S. government as part of our ongoing partnership with the people of the Marshall

Islands.”

The FY 2022 TAP funding provided to the Four Atoll Healthcare Program will support clinics

that serve the nuclear-affected communities on Majuro, Mejatto, Kili, Enewetak, and Utrok. For

the peoples of Enewetak and Utrok, as well as the dislocated peoples of Bikini and Rongelap,

these clinics provide primary and ancillary healthcare services including support for women’s

and children wellness, vision, vaccinations, screening for communicable diseases, and education

and outreach on non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Funding this

year includes an increase to support a dentist and dental equipment.

OIA has provided TAP funding assistance to the Four Atoll Healthcare Program, also referred to

as the Section 177 Healthcare Program, every year since 2005. Bikini, Rongelap, Enewetak, and

Utrok are the four atolls in the Republic of the Marshall Islands recognized by the United States

as impacted by the nuclear weapons testing program. The populations of these atolls, including

the still-dislocated populations of Bikini and Rongelap live throughout the Marshall Islands and

in the United States.

As authorized and appropriated pursuant to 48 U.S.C. 1469(d), OIA’s Technical Assistance

Program has been used to continue funding under the Four Atoll Healthcare Program identified

in the Section 177 Agreement under Article II, Section 1 of the Compact of Free Association

(P.L. 108-188), that expired after the initial 15-year period under which this program was first

funded.

For more news related to the Office of Insular Affairs, please visit:
https://www.doi.gov/oia/press-releases.

The Assistant Secretary of Insular and International Affairs and the Office of Insular Affairs

(OIA) carry out the Secretary of the Interior’s responsibilities for the U.S. territories of American

Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Additionally, OIA administers and oversees federal assistance under the Compacts of Free

Association to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the

Republic of Palau. OIA also administers a discretionary Technical Assistance Program for all

the insular areas. Find information about OIA and its work on www.doi.gov/oia, Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

###