At the age of 74, Linda Oifer has found that being a part of projects that help others keeps her young and warms her heart.

“Aging for me is a beautiful process,” she said. “I embraced the aging process because I’m older and wiser.”

One recent program the Kahala resident developed is the Aloha Market Empowerment Project, which helps young women in Samburu, Kenya.

The program offers women reusable menstrual kits which last up to three years. Feminine products in Samburu have become limited during the coronavirus pandemic because businesses are closed and families can’t afford them.

About 300 kits have been distributed since the summer. The program has grown since then, with six Aloha Markets and a seventh in the works.

The projects came about when Oifer met Resima Letorongos, who has become like a daughter to her.

“I got to know her and wanted to know her family,” she said. “She sent me a picture of her family, and I said instinctively, ‘What does your family need to improve the quality of life?’ She said her mother dreamed of owning a market in the village where she would be able to have a means for living.”

Oifer donated $500 to Letorongos’ family to jump-start their business, which would provide food and other supplies to the village.

During the pandemic, Oifer created a documentary about the Aloha Market Empowerment Project, which she submitted for the Hawaii International Film Festival earlier this year.

Oifer also assists with homeless housing in Hawaii with her husband, David, and is involved with HomeAid Hawaii’s kauhale project in Kalaeloa.

So far, Oifer and her husband have supported building four out of 36 tiny homes in Kalaeloa.

Oifer grew up in New Jersey and was an educator for more than a decade, until life threw her a curve- ball with an unexpected divorce from her first husband.

She recalled staying with her parents in New York, looking outside the window toward Central Park and saying to herself, “Linda, you can do anything with your life now.”

So she did.

She traveled around the world alone for seven months before coming back to work at her family’s textile business, where she became connected to Hawaii.

“Hawaii at the time was a huge home sewing market,” she said. “Many people bought fabrics to send back to the Philippines, and people were sewing their own clothing. That’s how I knew about Hawaii and fell in love with it and the people.”

In her 40s she married her current husband. At 55 she went back to school to receive her master’s degree in thanatology, which is the study of death, dying, grief and loss.

Oifer and her husband moved to Hawaii 12 years ago.

She keeps herself busy by running every day. When she turned 70 she made a promise to herself that she would run a half-marathon each year until she hits 80. So far, she’s completed five.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that plan was pushed back. However, Oifer continues to go outdoors daily.

“Even though I’m a runner, I’m not a fast runner,” she said. “It’s not about how fast you are; it’s about taking in the nature, the sounds of the birds and the smell of the flowers every start of the day.”