Paul's story

I came to Hawaii from Saigon not long after the Vietnam War. As a young boy, I crossed a land mine field to seek my freedom and eventually made my way to a Thai refugee camp where aid workers gave me my name, Paul. After months in a refugee camp, I was fortunate to find myself in Hawaii.

Over the years, I have learned to appreciate the unique beauty of Hawaii and wanted to combine my love of Hawaii by creating my Aloha Wood business to support myself and my mother and father.

I spent years developing my products to come out with my current designs that share my appreciation for Hawaii.

In addition to my wood art featuring Hawaii, I designed a few wood art military insignias to appreciate those who served during the Vietnam War.

During the Covid pandemic, I had to close my business for several months when restrictions were in place. During this extended lockdown, I realized that I needed to pivot to the online retail environment to survive. I then formed a new company called AlohaWoodArt and launched it with his existing website, alohawoodart.com. My current website was developed mainly to provide my existing customers with a means to add to their wood art collection. However, I realized that I need my products to reach a much larger audience. I decided to engage a professional Internet marketing company to help me. The Kiva loan will help me with the AlohaWoodArt website redesign and three months of intensive online marketing. I hope that AlohaWoodArt will take off, and I can focus on my online business and eventually transition away from selling my products at open-air markets.


This loan is special because:

It helps this business continue to grow.



Loan details


About Aloha Wood Art

Industry: Arts
Years in operation: 6 months - 1 year
Website: alohawoodart.com


Lenders and lending teams




Loan details