As I reflect upon the time I have spent in New Orleans thus far, I find myself shocked that it has been almost three months since I packed everything I owned into 4 large suit cases. It has been a whirlwind to say the least, but I have enjoyed every minute of it. I first fell in love with the city in 2011 when I spent a week with my undergraduate classmates volunteering with Operation Jeremiah after Hurricane Katrina. It took about 10 minutes for me to realize this was a city I wanted to live in.
The aspects of New Orleans that really drew me to the city was the rich culture followed by the southern hospitality.
Since moving to New Orleans, I have started volunteering my time at a few organizations in hopes of taking in all that the city has to offer. Each organization is unique in its mission and I hope to gain something different from each experience. The organization I have had the most time with is St. Anna's Episcopal Church. Initially, I started volunteering on their mobile medical unit. Coming from Boston, a city where virtually everyone has health care, it was really eye opening to see how few people have health coverage or even a stable doctor here in New Orleans. A main part of my duties is to educate patients about the important role diet, exercise, and smoking have on hypertension and diabetes along with taking their vitals. I am struck by how unaware most people are of their conditions, as well as, simple solutions they can make to reduce their risk of developing serious life threatening conditions. Through numerous discussions with director of the medical mission and expressing my interest in healthy life style choices, I learned about the church's arts programs for kids. They were in the process of launching new health program that would consist of teaching children how to cook healthy meals while simultaneously educating them on the important of nutrition and healthy lifestyle choice. I was eager to become a part of it. Having only assisted with one class, I hope to reflect more on this later. But I hope that working with children at a young age, I can be a part of something that will give these children a chance at living a healthy life.
Some of there other organizations I have volunteered with is Habitat for Humanity, Edible School Yard, and Touro Emergency Department. More on my experiences here on a later post!
Total hours: 34.5 hours
St Anna's Health Fair: 6 hours
Habitat for Humanity: 8 hours
ESY: 3.5 hours
St Anna's Arts for Kids: 2 hours
St. Anna's Medical Mission: 12
Touro: 3 hours
St. Anna's Health Fair
St. Anna's Medical Mission
Samuel L. Green First Line Edible School Yard Garden
Spending our day with Habitat for Humanity
