For my third action project in my policy class, I had to identify a human right and volunteer at an organization that supported that human right. The right that I chose was housing. The organization I volunteered for was H.O.M.E. Home stands for housing opportunties and maintenance for the elderly. I volunteered for three hours there. Below is my experience working at Home and my reflections on it.
A burger. I look at burgers differently now. Why? You may wonder. Well it is all because of an experience I had volunteering at Home(Housing Opportunties and Maintenance for the Elderly). When I was at Home I offered my gardening skills and worked on a beatification volunteer project with other DMSF volunters( this service day was arranged by my scholarship Daniel Murphey) for three hours. We worked our hardest. We pulled weeds, weeds, and more weeds. Then we layed down mulch and flowers. Working on this project I meet a few new people I didn’t know. There were about 20 volunteers and we were divided into groups. I enjoyed working with my group. The volunteers there( even though most were younger then me) were very delightful, energetic, and hard workers. Even though we did not get to meet many people who lived there that day, I know they were happy with the work we did. I know this for a fact because one of the women who lived there was watching us work the whole time. After we were finished she thanked us so much for all our hard worked. She really loved what we had done. Now burgers. You may be wondering what does all this have to do with burgers as I mentioned at the beginning. Well a women named Natille worked there. She was so sweet( and I just loved her Jamaican accent). To show her appreciation for all the hard work we did she grilled us burgers. Now we were not suppose to be feed anything. We had only brought snacks to eat. However Natille was just so grateful for the work we did she gave us burgers anyway. Now when I look at a burger or eat one I always think of the experience I had at Home. And it is a reminder to me that when we help people(even though it might be a small action) people appreciate the help you give them. After finishing this service day I related it to my class and discussed it with them. They could relate to the human right I was addressing: Housing for the elderly. They talked about how their grandparents have care takers and those care takers do a lot for their grandparents. Some of them have to travel with the family and be away from their own family to take care of them. The question posed was: is doing this kind of work a burden or something they enjoy doing? What do you think?