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09/02/2025 – The Marianas Alliance of Non-Governmental Organizations, known as MANGO, celebrated 15 years of service in the Marianas last Saturday at their newly expanded office at Springs Plaza, Gualo Rai.
Despite the rain, dozens of community partners, nonprofit leaders, and supporters attended the event, exploring exhibits, enjoying food vendors, and touring the newly expanded headquarters.
The celebration highlighted MANGO’s journey from its founding in 2010 as an umbrella organization for nonprofits to becoming a hub of collaboration and advocacy.
MANGO Executive Director and co-founder Frances Manibusan Sablan described the milestone as a “dream come true.” She recalled, “Our co-founders, 15 years ago, this is what we envisioned, to have an office space, to have staff help the nonprofits. And the dream came true five years ago when we had funding from the Administration for Native Americans called ANA. And, you know, we had Emma and Pete Perez that basically initiated that application and we got funded for three years. And then, after that, we had Laurie Peterka, and I believe she teamed up with Emma and Pete to submit another application for ANA, and that is to collect data from our member organizations so that we can have like a dashboard of data, information about our nonprofits, especially the active ones, so that the philanthropic world out there, especially from the U.S. mainland, can see that we've got transparency in our nonprofits, accountability...Those are two values and virtues that the philanthropic world looks for.”
She added that MANGO is also working to collect data on active nonprofits so outside funders can see where their missions align.
Beyond capacity-building, Sablan said MANGO supports regional and global efforts such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Green Growth Initiative. “We basically are helping NMC and the governor's office in trying to collect the information, the data... to identify where and what of those Sustainable Development Goals they're helping to address.”
On MANGO’s beginnings, Sablan explained, “We are an umbrella organization. We got started by PIANGO, the Pacific Islands Association for NGOs. They came in 15 years ago. They wanted a representative from the Northern Pacific that represented the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas...And they wanted to see who were interested in establishing a nonprofit organization that was an umbrella organization for other nonprofits. And so Mango was established. And so the reason why we called it Mango is because we wanted to follow the NGO that Piango had. But we also wanted to, you know, showcase the Marianas. And although we are featuring the Northern Marianas, you know, we also do a lot with Guam. So we called it the Marianas Alliance of NGOs. So that's where Mango was born.”
Looking ahead, she stressed the need for stable funding: “We want to be more sustainable because right now we’re not necessarily sustainable, meaning to say that we don’t have a perpetual funding source. We always have to chase the funding source. And that's one of the things that one of our congresswomen is trying to help us with. And we're supposed to be meeting this coming, at least this upcoming Friday, with some of the key people in the government, you know. And so we want to see that come to life. It's a theory right now. It's a dream. And hopefully it will materialize because we do need a steady income to sustain us because right now we're just chasing the bucks, you know. And fortunately we were able to get some funding from the Administration for Native Americans. But we cannot repeat going back and repeat our project...”
MANGO’s new communications director, Mona Manglona, shared her excitement about the milestone event. “It's been so exciting to just see a bunch of our community members connecting with one another, lots of familiar faces. But also the first time that a lot of people in our community are being exposed to some of the work that our members are doing. So it's just so exciting seeing all the love and care, even through the rainy day.”
Having recently returned to the CNMI after 10 years away, she added, “So to be able to come back in this capacity to continue telling the stories of MANGO, bridging our community with the work and the impact that we have. And it really just increasing visibility of all the community care and love that goes out from all of our members. It's just truly a privilege. So I'm excited to be a part of amplifying those stories.”
Marianas Press got to speak to several community partners and NPO’s in attendance, all sharing their congratulations.
500 Sails program coordinator Heavenly Pangelinan said, “A big congratulations to MANGO we are so happy to be a part of your journey, we are so thankful for you guys and we learn so much from them, and they’re doing great work for the CNMI. Keep it up!”
Saipan Chamber of Commerce’s Kim Camacho added, “I’m actually surprised that they’ve been operating for the past 15 years, I think within the past five years they’ve really grown and really put themselves out there into the community and done a lot of work for the non-profit organizations across the islands; and so we’re so happy to be here to celebrate them. we wish them another fifteen years and more, and were just right behind them supporting all their efforts and their initiatives.”
Exhibitors Rabeya Akter, Rachel Villasis, Zlata Vekhova and Vaughn Mallarik from the Northern Marianas College’s nursing program also shared their congratulations “...it takes a lot of effort reaching out to the community and making sure everybody is really involved and gets to see the culture we have to share here on Saipan.” added Mallarik
Sharon Paek, executive assistant at Saipan Humane Society, shared, “Congratulations to MANGO on your fifteenth anniversary its awesome to see how much youve grown throughout the years and you guys are doing an amazing job and I cant wait to see more from you and thank you for inviting us to your celebration.”
Friends of the Marianas Trench’s Alexander Tudela added, “MANGO has been a really important organization that has been with us. They provided their office space as a place for us to hold meetings and also provided the support we needed on some of our projects. Congratulations on fifteen years, I hope that moving forward all their future endeavors and projects they wish to accomplish that they achieve it.”
The celebration closed with many more echoing their well wishes with a resounding, “Biba MANGO!”
Report by Chrystal Marino
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