Aloha!
Today, January 11th was our service-learning activity that was scheduled for us to help out a shelter for homeless people. Before coming to Hawaii I did not know about the abundance of homeless people that were out on the streets until I witnessed it first hand. I did not realize the intensity of the issue on poverty, but from just exploring Hawaii and walking around on the
street of Waikiki I have noticed a mass amount of homeless and poor people. Comparing the amount of poor people in New York City, I feel as if you do not see as many in one area of the city than you would in O'ahu. When arriving at the homeless shelter we learned the background of the organization that started the program called H5, which
stands for "Hawaii Helping the Hungry Have Hope." The shelter was a prior air craft carrier for World War II that is owned by the state who is leasing it out to H5 to help the homeless. It is leased out because it was originally suppose to only run for 8 months. The program started in 2006 and is still running today. What I feel is special about this shelter is that they have action plans. This is when the residents choose a goal for themseves to accomplish before the maximum amount of time in the shelter of two years. These people want to do better, so the shelter is merely a stepping stool to a better life. What also surprised me is that I feel that they are effective, because they close down for most of the day, from 8:30 AM and opens at 5:30 PM. This forces people in the shelter to go out and get a job or go to school, because they can not just sit around in the shelter all day and not do anything. When the residents got to the shelter
they all came at various times from when we were there until we left and all of the residents did not even arrive when we left.
Check in time for the shelter ends at 10:30 PM, so anyone trying to check in after 10:30 PM will not be allowed in. The children there are friendly, they always wanted to play and were enthusiastic about our company. Some of the residents just went straight to their boxes and some would just watch us, or be too shy to come up to us. Overall, I fell it was a very educational experience interacting with the children and seeing them smile having a good time with us.
Thanks!
Gabby
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1 comment:
Dear Gabby--
This was an interesting perspective since I think, too often, and especially from the perspective of cold northern states like CT, we get caught up in the image of Hawaii as a beautiful place where abundance just drips from the trees. Not that it isn't also that but there is homelessness and need as part of that story. I'm so glad you all are having a good time too!
Best,
Prof Fran Altvater
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