Archive for March, 2010

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Resmond

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

I have been thinking about kids lately. Not in a, let’s make some babies sort of way, just kids in general. Today was a frustrating day, as I spent the morning listening to horrible ideas for construction projects. My tongue is still stinging from all of the biting that took place. For decompression, I wandered over to our tent hospital to focus on sketches and drown myself in oceans of Owl City. I set up shop in the operating room/ doodle spot and started in. 2 songs in, I felt small hands grab my shoulders and in a feat of Haitian gymnastics, Resmond was in my lap. Resmond and I were not always best friends. The first day I saw him, he sat head down on a cot and avoided eye contact with me.

Day 2 brought us a bit closer. You see in Haiti, the only people that have visible tattoos are deportees from the states and gang members. Yep, thug life for this blanc!! (blanc means white) Today they took me to Citi Soleil, the worst neighborhood in Port Au Prince with the dubious distinction of being number one for violence and kidnappings because nobody really looks twice at me. Google it if you get bored.

Resmond was a bit curious about this gangster from Colorado, so he shyly pointed my arm out to my friend John and John waved me over so he could see it. Carefully and gently he reached out and began to trace the cross and lettering on my left forearm. Satisfied it was permanent, he sat quietly next to me looking at his tiny pink Crocs. I reached out delicately and put my arm around him to rub his back. 10 minutes later he was sound asleep in my lap. From that day forward, Resmond seeks me out whenever I am at the hospital. “Bree-anne, Bree-anne,” is the standard Creole pronunciation for my name and Resmond calls it out whenever he sees me.

And today found Resmond curled up in my lap, content to watch me sketch and listen to one of my ear buds. The other thing to note about Resmond is that his right arm is pretty jacked. His hand bends a bit unnaturally and he is covered in burn scars all over. He has seen doctor after doctor and each time he gets a bit better, but I have to wonder if he will ever be fully healed. His scars will never go away and he may never gain full use of his hand. I know that my tattoos make me tough in the eyes of others and I exploit it when necessary. Yet, as I watched Resmond’s scarred chest rise and fall as he slept in my lap, I found true toughness and the scars that declare it loudly to the world. No needles and ink required.

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Posted in Disaster Relief, Service, Volunteer Reflection, Volunteering, Volunteerism | 2 Comments »

Volunteerism on FourSquare

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Ever since I heard about FourSquare, I’ve been wondering what it might mean to become ‘The Mayor’ of a service project.

If you haven’t heard of it, FourSquare is a smart phone application through which you “check-in” at places you visit.

When I open the program, my phone’s GPS system locates me and suggests nearby businesses.  Then I select the one I’m visiting and “check in.”

Once checked in, my friends can see where I am and join me if they are nearby.

If it happens that I am the person with the most check-ins at a single location, I become ‘The Mayor’ of that location.

Some businesses offer special discounts or deals to the reigning Mayor.  For example, The Mayor drinks free at a local watering hole.

My behavior on Foursquare also earns points and badges.

I receive points for checking in at new places, checking in multiple times in a day, etc.

I can’t figure out what my points are accruing towards, but somehow I like earning them anyway.

Sometimes my check ins  “unlock” merit badges.

You might say that you “don’t need no stinkin’ badges,” but FourSquare, has attracted more than 500,000 users in just over a year and they disagree with you.

Badges are in, my friend.

It is somehow thrilling to check in at a location and learn that you have unlocked the super explorer badge, though I can’t put my finger on why exactly.

[I'M A SUPER EXPLORER!! HUZZAH!!]

Sometimes users can unlock special, location based rewards.

At the  SXSW interactive conference, a friend checked in at a bar that specialized in Macallen scotch and unlocked a free 18 year old malt.  To redeem her reward, she simply held her iPhone out to the bartender who touched the “redeem” button on the screen and served her the drink.

As I’ve been experimenting with FourSquare, I keep thinking about what applications it might have for volunteer organizations.

Again, what might it mean to become The Mayor of a service project?

Could volunteers “unlock” badges such as “Social Innovator” or “Community Hero?”

Could volunteers earn rewards generated through cause marketing corporate partnerships?

Volunteers who check in five times at the local foodbank earn a free latte?

Obviously there are some types of service projects that don’t fit with a geo-locating software.  Some locations are secret for a reason, but many are not.

Could the growing FourSquare trend enhance volunteer recruitment?

Because I can easily add text to my check-ins and synchronize these posts with my Facebook and Twitter accounts, I wonder if adding “we still need five volunteers” to my service project check in message would draw more assistance in real time.

And what if FourSquare check-ins could be integrated with volunteer management databases?  Could check-ins then serve as confirmation of volunteer attendance at a project?  If so, could volunteer organizations more easily track participation and calculate overall impact with the assistance of this tool?

Potentially, FourSquare could enhance volunteer recognition, volunteer recruitment, project management and evaluation…

Quick! Someone get me on the phone with ! () and help  me to pull together a team of crack pro-bono developers to build a  FourSquare volunteer management plug in!

And while you’re waiting for my new app to launch, you might consider integrating FourSquare into some of your existing events.

But proceed with some caution and read these safety recommendations related to using foursquare and other location based technologies.

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Posted in Mobilize, Service, Social Media, Tools You Can Use, Volunteer Management, Volunteer Recognition, Volunteering, Volunteerism | 15 Comments »

Points of Light Legacy

Monday, March 29th, 2010

As an eight-year old at the time of President George H. W. Bush’s inaugural address, I honestly do not remember hearing about “a thousand points of light.”  When I speak to people a bit older than me, most people immediately recognize the phrase as part of President Bush’s speech.

It’s pretty amazing that more than 20 years after President Bush said these words our country remembers them and continues to focus on serving others in the way he hoped.  In the address, President Bush said, “We must bring in the generations, harnessing the unused talent of the elderly and the unfocused energy of the young.”

Twenty years later…

  • Over 23 million more volunteers participating annually today in service than in 1989.
  • More than twice as many youth are volunteering as volunteered in 1989.
  • Baby boomers and older Americans are both over 40% more likely to volunteer than the same age groups in 1989.

Check out more statistics on the state of American volunteerism here.

This got me thinking – what other leaders have legacies that people recognize just by a simple phrase like “points of light”, and how many of these legacies continue to improve communities across our nation and the world?

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Posted in Inspire, Volunteer Reflection, Volunteering, Volunteerism | 2 Comments »

coming back to life

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Brian Leftwich, a HandsOn Network staff member is volunteering in Haiti and sharing his experiences here.

I wanted to share an excerpt from my friend’s blog. She is a PA with us here and the women on the medical team are my heroes. Tonight I held down a 3 week old infant, so we could get an IV started. I am pretty sure I will never forget his screams as they searched for a vein. I consider myself so honored that these children would share their lives with me. Even if it is only because I have a smile and give amazing hi-5′s.

“This week’s good moments… A little boy of about 8 years old flashed me an obscene finger gesture as he stared at me through the bars on the truck. “No,” I yelled at him, flashing back the peace sign. “La pe! La pe!” (Peace. Peace.) He looked taken aback for a moment, then lifted his index finger to join his middle finger. “La pe..?” he said tentatively to me. “La pe!” I gestured back, encouragingly, fingers raised in the universally recognized vee of peace. Suddenly a smile lit up his face, and he waved his peace sign vigorously shouting, “La pe!! La pe!” His buddies quickly followed suit. If only all peace talks were so simple.

Antoinette, with the most perfect, fragile, angelic face and soft, musical voice. Crushed under a wall inside of her house while pregnant, with one leg amputated and another crushed, was told this week we could remove the metal external fixator holding together her shattered tibia. And that she is now allowed to walk. She is our last patient finally cleared to walk. When told, she immediately stared off into space, rocking back and forth and chanting something repetitive. Concerned she was fearing the upcoming procedure, I asked our translator what she was saying. “She’s saying, ‘Thank you God, thank you God…’ he said, matter of factly. Lying in the caring arms of Dr. Jenn, with eyes closed, softly singing, the stabilizing metal rods were one by one removed.

Baby Kenny, the three pound near-death septic baby, for whom we artificially breathed every three seconds in the back seat of our truck on my first day in Haiti…fighting for his life…whose mother wailed in fear of his imminent death…is now back in our care. And through the patient education of Beth our midwife, is now breastfed by his teenage mother. And this week, hit a whopping five pounds.

Patrick, a 13 year old boy who presented to our clinic a few days after the earthquake with his tibia bone broken and jutting out through his skin, will get his metal external fixator device off next week as well. He’s had a long, challenging course, complicated by recurrent infection and skin grafting. A young man with great grit and courage. He currently walks around with crutches that he’s decorated with small sayings in English written in Sharpie pen. My favorite is a spelling error, where he mistook an “n” for an “m”. It reads, “I BELIEVE IM GOD”

Rony, 11 year old boy with a crushed, scarred right face and bot fly larvae removed from his eye orbit, who wandered the street for 6 weeks without care before finding treatment, picked up a pen today. And drew a self portrait. Of a beautiful symmetrical boy.

Jameson, a young boy we found in the slum of Twa Bebe, near the plastic bottle and pig filled river, went home this week. We’d found him in a bright green, dirty cast extending from his abdomen to his foot — treatment for an unstable femur fracture. He’d been released to the streets with no follow-up…destined to outgrow his restrictive green prison. We were able to scoop him up, get follow-up orthopedic care, ultimately remove his cast, and provide him with physical therapy. A beautiful moment, as he walked with us down the cement path to his home, assisted by his crutches. He paused at the door to his single room cinder block home and a woman came out — his mother. She cradled his face gently in her hands, staring into his eyes. And kissed him on the forehead as tears welled in her eyes. She then folded her hands across her heart, turned to look at us, and bowed her head, saying “Merci…merci….” Jameson, in typical preteen boy fashion, shrugged away his mom’s attention with a grimace, and wandered over to sit on the stoop — apparently his favorite spot. The spot from which we’d plucked him. Coming back to life. Yeah, it’s been a good week.” -Barbie

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Posted in Disaster Relief, Inspire, Volunteer Reflection | No Comments »

Nonprofit Listening 101: Google Reader

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Social media is enabling an incredible online conversation amongst nonprofit thought leaders and innovators.

To stay relevant, nonprofits need to listen to the conversation and, at some point,  join it.

My preferred listening tool is .

Every time new content is published from a source I want to listen to, Google pulls the content into my reader so that I don’t have to visit multiple websites.

[Which I totally appreciate.]

This short video provides an overview of how  works.

For an in depth, step-by-step tutorial on setting up a Google Reader account read this short “how to” post.

Once you have created a account, you’ll want to subscribe to the blogs and other news sources that you want to read regularly.

[You can subscribe to this blog right now by .]

For step by step instructions on subscribing to the RSS feed of any blog or news source, read this.

Consider bookmarking your Google Reader Page so that you can access it easily every day.

You can use your Google Reader to listen for key words and phrases as well by signing up to recieve .

With Google Alerts, you can be notified whenever key words or phrases are mentioned on the web.

I have a Google Alert set up to notify me every time my name is mentioned on the internet.

[And this is how I keep tabs on the  fit, young woman who shares my name and runs triathlons in Hawaii. Bonus!]

I also monitor key phrases like “volunteering;” “volunteer leaders;” and “HandsOn Network”.

You can set Google Alerts to feed into your e-mail inbox or into your Google Reader.

I like the alerts sent to Google Reader because I am overloaded with e-mail already.

For a detailed tutorial on setting up Google Alerts, click here.

Now that you have an introduction to Google Reader and Google Alerts,  you can start listening.

If you don’t know where to start, here is a list of blogs that I follow.  Feel free to subscribe to any that sound interesting.

You can always “unsubscribe” if you don’t like the content.

If you have suggestions about additional blogs and news sources to follow, please leave them  in the comments section of this post.

Blogs I follow:

501derful.org
David Neff is a Teacher, Speaker, Blogger, Network Weaver, and Social Media Scientist. This is his blog.

Allison Fine
Allison Fine explores the ways that digital tools, particularly social media, are enhancing our connectedness to one another and our ability and willingness to work for the collective social good.


If you are managing your organization’s Facebook presence or a fan page for a program, this “how to” blog will keep you up to date on how to make the best use of Facebook.

Amy Sample Ward’s Version of NPTech
Amy is dedicated to supporting and educating organizations, community groups and the wider social change sector about evolving technologies that cultivate and engage communities.

Beth’s Blog
Beth’s Blog is the epicenter of social media and social good.

Brian Solis
Solis is globally recognized for his views and insights on the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media.

Cause Global
Ms. Stepanek is an award-winning journalist and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Contribute Media, a New York-based news and information company that covers the new people and ideas of giving.


The Center for Future Civic Media supports research at MIT to innovate civic media tools and practices and test them in communities. Bridging two established programs at MIT—one known for inventing alternate technical futures, the other for identifying the cultural and social potential of media change—the Center for Future Civic Media is a joint effort between the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program.

Community Organizer 2.0
Community Organizer 2.0 is a forum for discussion and opinions on web 2.0 and non-profits. This blog considers social communities, tools and communication in the websphere.

Conversation Agent
Valeria Maltoni built one of the first online communities associated with Fast Company magazine. A brand strategist with 20 years of real-world corporate experience, 10 of which online, she’s worked with Fortune 500 and small start up companies in 5 industries. She specializes in taking companies to what’s next in their business cycle through marketing communications, customer dialogue, and brand advocacy.


CSRwire is the world’s number one resource for corporate social responsibility news as well as the hub for an influential community that has realized the value and necessity of Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability.


Our mission is to educate, entertain, and inspire viewers by providing video interviews, behind-the-scenes insights, & personal profiles of social entrepreneurs & extraordinary people who are changing the world.

Frogloop
Online nonprofit marketing blog.

Issue Lab’s Comprehensive News Feed
IssueLab’s mission is to more effectively archive, distribute, and promote the extensive and diverse body of research being produced by the nonprofit sector.

Jayne’s Blog
Jayne is an independent consultant that has supported numerous organizations in communications, community/volunteer involvement, staff capacity-building, organizational management and fund-raising.

Katya’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog
Katya Andreson’s personal blog on Robin Hood Marketing—the concept of stealing corporate savvy to sell just causes—and my life as a marketer, from Washington DC to Madagascar to points in between.

Logic & Emotion
A senior vice president at Edelman Digital with 14 years experience in the industry writes Logic + Emotion what Advertising Age calls one of the top media + marketing blogs.

Midcourse Corrections
Midcourse Corrections is about annual meeting improvement, association meetings and education, and the convergence of Web 2.0, social media, meetings, events and education.

Nonprofit Tech 2.0
Nonprofit Tech 2.0 was created and is managed by Heather Mansfield f DIOSA Communications. Fueled by a strong passion for the Internet, Heather spends her days [and some nights] helping nonprofit organizations utilize the Internet as a tool for social change.

NTEN Blog
NTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations skillfully and confidently use technology to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.

Philanthopic
A blog of opinion and commentary from Philanthropy News Digest.

Re imagining CSR
Jessica Stannard-Friel explores innovations and trends in corporate social responsibility, with an emphasis on initiatives that serve both a social impact motive and a profit motive.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Confidence and SuperCorp.

Selfish Giving
Joe Waters talks about cause marketing.


Uplifting news.


Conversation on digital marketing

Social Citizen’s Blog
This blog is for anyone who’s energetic and passionate about social causes; who brims with new approaches and ideas for problem-solving; who’s disposed toward sharing the responsibilities and rewards of affecting change in the world; and who’s equipped with the digital tools and people power to make it happen.

Social Innovation Conversations
Social Innovation Conversations brings you the voices of the people at the forefront of creating social and environmental change in the world. Their goal is to allow you through audio lectures, panel discussions, conference recordings and audio interviews to hear what these individuals have to share, discover the models they are creating, and build on the lessons they’ve learned.

Social Media Explorer
A social media educator, a social media strategist and a public relations professional helps companies understand the social web and show them how engaging consumers online can help their business.

Socialbrite
Socialbrite is a learning hub & sharing community that brings together top experts in social media, social causes and online philanthropy. We’re here to share insights about the tools and best practices that drive the social Web and advance the social good.

Think Social
ThinkSocial is a new non-profit initiative dedicated to advancing the use of social media in the public interest.

Wild Apricot
This blog is for volunteers, webmasters and administrators of associations and nonprofits. They discuss issues and trends in web technologies that help your organization do more with less.

Working Wikily
The purpose of this blog is to provide practitioners in the social sector with a filter for the events that are pushing the field towards a more networked form of work and a perspective on how and why those events are unfolding.

HandsOn Network Blogs

A Lifetime of Service
The official blog of AmeriCorps Alums

HandsOn Corps
Here you will find great stories, shout outs, and happenings from HandsOn Corps – HandsOn Network’s AmeriCorps Members.

Civic. Energy. Generation
The official blog of the 2010 National Conference on Service and Volunteering

HandsOn Bay Area

HandsOn Greater Portland

HandsOn Gulf Coast

HandsOn NE Georgia

HandsOn Northeast Ohio

LA Works

Volunteer Center of Lewis, Mason & Thurston Counties

Metro Volunteers

New York Cares

Seattle Works

Volunteer Center Bergen County

Volunteer Center of Story County

Volunteer Howard

Volunteer San Diego

Volunteer Santa Cruz

Allison & Associates
(Okay so this isn’t a HandsOn Network blog, but Allison is the founding Executive Director of our Phoenix affiliate and so we think of her as family.)

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Posted in Equip, News & Links, Social Media, Tools You Can Use | 5 Comments »

House Hunting in Haiti

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Today’s post comes from Haiti where Brian Leftwich, a staff person at HandsOn Network, is currently volunteering.

I went house hunting in Haiti yesterday with my new colleague Junior.

We began our quest around 9:00 to find a potential house to run a volunteer center out of.

My company, HandsOn Network, has been gracious enough to pay for me to stay an additional 10 days, and I am stoked on networking with all the people making a difference here.

One hour later, we picked up our “real estate” agent on a corner in the market.

He had a killer 8 bedroom for rent and wanted to take us to see it.

We made it back to his office to find out it was no longer available.

Thirty minutes later we met a Canadian Haitian at the office, who had a house for rent.

His car broke down at the office so he hopped in with us.

The starting price for an 8 bedroom, 3 bath, unfinished house on a hill was $9,000 a month.

In my search I have found out that Haitians love to put bathrooms under the stairs.

The door starts at 6’, but the toilet is around the 4’ mark with a sloping ceiling.

A bathroom for hobbits I suppose.

I looked at four other homes that day, with two additional agents in various parts of town and in various conditions.

The agents never left the car, we would just put them in back of our two door Tracker.

Junior, my translator, had diarrhea the whole time, so every house went to, he “checked” the functionality of the toilets.

Our last house was unscheduled as we were flagged down by a guy on the corner who said he had a house for rent.

It was perfect, if you are into pit bulls, stolen aid gear, 6 shirtless dudes pumping iron, some weed, 2 BMW’s and a Foosball table.

I guess protection would not be an issue.

The day ended well with a meeting at US AID.

I realized quickly that things move slower in Haiti and it comes down to who you know.

Junior, my guide and translator, had actually grown up with the man we were meeting.

“It’s a small island after all, it’s a small, small island…”

They were working with street youth and teaching them trades.

One of their inventions was a 20 oz soda bottle LED flashlight/desk lamp. Solar rechargeable and unbreakable.

They were also recycling paper into biscuits that would heat stoves.

PVC pipe, paper, and a floor jack was all they needed.

Haitians are some of the most innovative people I have ever met.

ReCycle/ReUse is a necessity, not a cliché saying on a grocery bag in Boulder.

We ended the day at Le Delicas, the local hamburger shack.

As Junior and I munched on fries and burgers, it seemed like a normal day in Haiti.

We could still here the UN trucks roll past, but in this brief moment, all was well in the world.

Haiti is home to wonderfully gracious people.

At times I feel awkward at how accommodating they are to me.

Meals, laundry, and such, as if my comfort was of the utmost importance to them.

It always seems those with the least, give the most.

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Posted in Disaster Relief, Get HandsOn, Service, Volunteer Reflection, Volunteering, Volunteerism | 1 Comment »

Diversifying Volunteerism, Partnering for Success

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

“Volunteer,” “volunteerism,” and “volunteer service” are terms that are not easily understood by all groups of society.

I have been volunteering since I was 14, but my family struggles to understand what I do and why (and for that matter, what non-profit work is all about).

In addition to inspiring more people to volunteer in their communities and become leaders on community service projects, one of the things we hope to accomplish through our Get HandsOn Campaign is to help people of all cultures and ethnicities realize the value of volunteer service.

In my role, I am responsible for creating mutually beneficial partnerships with organizations that will help us meet our goals for inspiring and equipping more volunteers.

I come to you today to ask for your ideas about how to bring more people of diverse ages, cultures, socioeconomic status, etc., to volunteerism.

Do you know about organizations that engage diverse groups of people in service, or for whom service is a priority?

Perhaps they use a different term to describe the same thing. Are there other terms we should use to describe service that will resonate better with communities, or do we need to work harder to explain volunteerism and its benefits?

In addition to your own thoughts on this, if you know about organizations that might be interested in connecting with us, tell me about them!

Share your ideas with me here, or email me at .

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Posted in Get HandsOn, News & Links, Volunteerism | No Comments »

Michelle Nunn – Stories from the Road

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Recently, Michelle participated in the Gulf South Summit at the .

While there, she learned about the Stop Sex Trafficking Project (STOP) and later told us about it.

STOP is an initiative that grew out of a required first year course at called “Engaging the World.”

Class participants studied Judeo-Christian ideas of ethics and justice and read authors such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Heschel.

The students also read from the Bible and found resonance with the call to “loose the bonds of injustice, undo the thongs of the yoke, and let the oppressed go free” (Isaiah 58:6); and to Matthew 25:40,  “Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.”

Their readings led them to view their own community through new eyes and to talk about the injustices they saw.

Exploring the issues of poverty, education, and race, they noticed the excessive number of billboards on the nearby interstate advertising for massage parlors.

After extensive research, they discovered the voiceless women and children who, lured by fraud, deception, and coercion, were enslaved as prostitutes in their home town of  , Georgia.

The students wrote essays, pamphlets and blog posts about the injustice and soon realized that their efforts were larger than a class project. Real women were suffering.

The Mercer students believed they could help.

Their movement quickly grew to include additional students and, ultimately, their efforts enabled the release of six women who had previously been enslaved.

Theirs is a powerful and inspiring story.

When people believe they can make a difference, they do.

After hearing about these students, I found myself thinking about their professor.

How might each of us inspire a similar confidence in the young people we influence?

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Posted in Education, Equip, Impact, Inspire, Michelle Nunn, Mobilize, Stories from the Road, Volunteering, Volunteerism | No Comments »

Right Now Volunteerism

Friday, March 19th, 2010

I was just opening the car door when he appeared. He practically flew towards me and was completely out of breath.

“Are you taking this car?” he asked. “There’s a soup kitchen that needs volunteers right now and I really have to get there. Can you give me a ride?”

I was struck by the irony of the request.

It was the first day of the SWSW interactive conference in Austin, Texas, an event that attracts about 7,000 attendees.

Of all the people he could stumble into and ask for a ride, he chose me, a career volunteer manager.

“I’d be happy to give you a ride,” I said with a broad grin. “Hop in.”

He was young, probably in his twenties, and he navigated towards the service project using his iPhone.

I was struck by the sense of urgency he felt. His phone told him that the project was short on volunteers and the immediacy of their need seemed to motivate him to get there fast.

When we pulled up in front of the small building, he nearly fell out of the car as he hurried to help.

I felt like I saw the future at the SXSW conference.

The thousands of attendees made up a crowd of the most plugged in, online people I’ve ever seen assembled. Laptops and smart phones were on and active constantly.

Conversation would jump from face-to-face, to twitter, to SMS and back again in a way that oddly felt more natural than I would have expected.

Throughout the conference, my thoughts kept returning to the young man who wanted a ride to the soup kitchen.

That his phone alerted him to a project that needed more volunteers immediately, and that he responded to that, surprised me.

Until now, I’ve operated under the assumption that volunteers planned ahead.

My over committed lifestyle requires volunteer activity to be scheduled in advance, but my experience of this young enthusiast made me wonder if the future of volunteer management will necessitate greater flexibility.

Will the millennial generation be more likely to respond to volunteer opportunities in the moment and, if so, how will nonprofit organizations adapt?

Posted in Mobilize, Service, Volunteer Management, Volunteering, Volunteerism | 2 Comments »

marley

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

3.18.2010

Today was nostalgic for me. I spent my morning preparing lunch for 25 folks that are here in Haiti. Sharing laughs as Jeremy showed Melanie, the sassiest little 4 year old Haitian girl ever, how to use his camera. Chopping and slicing bacon and onions and scrounging for ingredients, reminded me of my own kitchen. My wife can attest to my ability to create delectable dishes from a random assortment of ingredients. So similar to my own kitchen that there was a dog laid out on the floor, tongue hanging out, half sleeping waiting for me to drop a tasty morsel. Except this was not Oscar, my 70 pound white lab. Nope this was Marley, a drooley faced 220 pound Mastiff teddy bear, that awaited a errant piece of bacon. Marley loves to have his tummy rubbed, but your hand will not suffice. To really rub his tummy, a work boot with solid treads is necessary to really get his massive hind leg kicking. Seeing him made me wonder if Oscar was in my kitchen watching my wife make cereal for dinner, hoping for a few Cheerios.

Later, the doctor from Canada was remembering what a hot shower felt like, and brushing your teeth in the sink. Not having to follow every action with hand sanitizer, or watch your tent hospital flood as the rains fell today. As we left the hospital tonight we saw a grim reminder of life in Haiti. It was a home set up next to a wall, abandoned, but tomorrow we will greet the resident with , “Bonjour,” as we head to work. Home for many Haitians is 8 sticks and a hodge-podge of tarps. So when it rains, the floor becomes 4 inches of water that just ran off a garbage heap. Forget having a roof. Having a floor is the real concern. When an overcrowded tent city was a step up in homes for people, can there be any hope for Haiti? When the UN leaves certain parts of town at night, because it is unsafe for 8 men with machine guns and an armored vehicle to be there when darkness falls, is there any chance of light? When volunteers cannot rebuild homes for people, because once it is fixed, the landlords will kick out the tenants and charge double the rent, is a social conscience a sad dream shared by few.

There is hope for Haiti. There are lights shining in the darkness. There is a social conscience. There truly is, and when I doubt these things, I listen for the sound of Melanie’s giggle as she plays hide and seek with me or remember Marley, drool hanging to the floor, content with a tummy rub and a pat on the head. As Marley’s namesake used to say “Don’t worry, ‘bout a thing. Because every little thing’s, gonna be alright.” As long as there are ordinary people, doing extraordinary things, there will always be hope for Haiti.

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Posted in Disaster Relief, Volunteer Reflection, Volunteering, Volunteerism | No Comments »

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