Our Mission: SASH is a Hawaiian 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that improves the quality of life of our islands’ individuals living with disabilities and enhances the services of community organizations by placing assistance dogs with customized training and lifetime support.

We have a small staff and more than 150 dedicated volunteers committed to the success of our mission. SASH places service dogs only in the State of Hawaii.

To learn more about specific eligibility requirements or to apply for a service dog, contact us at information@SASH-hawaii.com. For those unable to pay, there is no cost to the recipient for the service dogs we raise, train, and place, or for the training we provide. We are sometimes asked to train someone’s pet. Some dogs cannot qualify as service animals and have to remain pets. Some dogs that showed promise of becoming service animals are not trainable and have to be released for adoption.

Many SASH volunteers who have adopted released dogs also volunteer with those dogs serving instead as therapy dogs. These volunteers serve thousands of area residents every month.

Your gift, pooled with other support, will help us provide service dogs and other highly skilled canines to Hawaii's citizens so that they— dogs and people— may live their best lives. Funds donated to a specific dog may be utilized to support general program needs.

Our History: Everyone has at some point in life passed through a door bearing a sign that read “NO PETS ALLOWED.” SASH’s founder, Grace Akamu, was only seven years old in 1992 when she and her family moved to Oahu from Los Angeles. She was blinded following a car accident and relied every day on her guide dog Sky to navigate her first grade classes and any place she visited with her family. She could not read the first sign she encountered that might have barred her entry of a store in her new hometown, but her parents could, and they entered the local grocery store and explained that they wanted to bring their daughter and her service animal with them as it was too hot to leave either or both in the car. After explaining how Sky was not a pet but a tool Grace needed to guide her, the store’s owner understood the difference and welcomed the youngster and her service animal indoors. Grace never forgot how it felt to stand outside on the pavement waiting to hear the store owner’s verdict. As she grew to adulthood, Grace became the voice for the service animals who became her and others’ “eyes,” “ears,” “noses,” and guides.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses and state and local governments to avoid discrimination against persons with disabilities who use a service animal. Service animals, by law, must be given access to most public spaces open to the public even if they have a “no pets policy.” The only questions that business owners can ask are (1) if this is a service animal required for a disability; and (2) what work or task the service animal has been trained to perform. SASH has done its part to get the word out to our state’s business owners to improve accessibility.

Our current mission has evolved to focus on facilitating the training of dogs to become service animals and providing service animals to persons who might otherwise never be able to afford such assistance.