Volunteer with New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity

Years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, there is still much work to be done in the ravaged areas of New Orleans and beyond, and several nonprofit organizations have steadfastly been rebuilding, repairing, and helping residents to recuperate, always with the help of dedicated volunteers from the US and abroad.

Habitat for Humanity International is one such organization. The international nonprofit started up in 1976 as an ecumenical Christian housing ministry. Habitat opened a New Orleans area branch in 1983, and while it has always been a prominent community organization, its work has increased tremendously in the wake of Katrina.

Donations largely fund Habitat for Humanity, and full-time staff help train volunteers to perform various tasks around Habitat worksites. The homeowner families which Habitat chooses to receive the newly-built homes work in a partnership with Habitat staff and volunteers, which empowers the families to take an active role in the building of their new home and even their new life. The small mortgages that families pay for their homes are used for further Habitat construction on other families' homes.

I had the chance to work with Habitat's post-Katrina effort for a week in early June 2007. I traveled to Louisiana with a group of about fifteen people from my university. We were placed at a Habitat site in Slidell, which was in the process of building about ten houses in one neighborhood at the time. Though one guy in our group was a rock climber and could easily lift heavy things and swing himself over the walls of large dumpsters like Spider-man, most of us had few obvious skills in the construction department and may have been laughed off a non-voluntary worksite. Lucky for us, the Habitat site's staff members were extremely gracious, welcoming, and helpful. We were split up on Monday morning and put right to work on several of the houses.