Our Story

Outer Islands Partnernship (OIP) began with the dream of Vid Raatior to tab into existing global resources to help his people in the outer islands of Micronesia.  Having grown up amidst the poverty in the Northwest region of Chuuk State, Vid experienced firsthand the lack of educational resources, health care, and economic development opportunities for his people. His dream was to get an education and someday return and help his people. While completing his graduate studies in educational administration at the University of San Francisco, he met his partner Desha who was doing her masters in the International and Multicultural Education program. Her passion for women’s rights and health and his desire to help children in the outer islands began to shape their relationship.

Soon after their marriage, they both quit successful jobs at Santa Clara University and University of San Francisco respectively to go out and volunteer at Xavier High School in Micronesia. That profound experience deepened their desire to find more formal ways to be involved in the empowerment of the impoverished people from those isolated islands.

To support their educational effort in Chuuk, Desha’s father Dr. Barry Staley, a retired periodontist and his librarian wife Stephanie started the Micronesia Dental Support Project out of their home to solicit dental equipment to send to Chuuk State Public Health Clinic. They succeeded in filling an entire 40-foot container worth over $500,000 which they shipped via Matson Shipping Lines to Chuuk. They both flew to Chuuk to help the local staff to set up the equipment and to bring some books to the Xavier High School library. His goal was to eventually recruit volunteer dentists to come out to Chuuk to help people in the outer islands. In the summer of 2008, Dr. Staley returned to Chuuk with a team of volunteer dentists and a support crew intending to operate free dental clinics on the outer island of Houk. Unfortunately, the high fuel cost grounded the one small airliner that serviced the outer islands so the team set out to help people in the lagoon islands serving over 400 patients.

In 2009, they decided to organize the efforts into the Outer Islands Partnership. The naming of the organization mirrors that dream of building global partnerships with people of goodwill, philanthropic organizations, corporations, and college students to help in the three areas of needs in those outer islands; namely, education, health care, and economic development.

Meet the founders

Desha and Vid were born years apart, separated by the vast Pacific ocean into two completely different cultures and histories. Vid grew up on the outer island of Houk in Chuuk State, Micronesia while Desha grew up in Santa Cruz, California. He was raised by a large extended family while she grew up with her brother Derek. He joined the Jesuits after graduating from college while she was a health educator for Planned Parenthood. Their passions for education and women’s rights brought them to pursue graduate degrees at the University of San Francisco where they met. Those passions have extended to ways of empowering women and children in the outer islands of Micronesia.

They live with their daughter Keala and newborn son Keoni in Soquel, California. She works at Matlack-Vanevery Design while Vid works at the International Programs Office at Santa Clara University. They founded the Outer Islands Partnership as a way to be actively involved in helping to help the outer islands in areas of education, health care, and economic development.