March 13-20 -- This was our third year traveling to New Orleans to help with the ongoing rebuilding of the city following the devastation of hurricane's Katrina and Rita. While the city continues to recover bit by bit, the recovery is patchwork, with entire neighborhoods barely existing more than four years afterwards.
Our primary effort was once again to help The Phoenix of New Orleans, a non-profit based in the Lower-Mid City neighborhood. Pnola works with homeowners to return them to the homes they already own, helping to rebuild the neighborhood with its original residents. The homeowners provide the materials, Pnola acts as the general contractor, and organizations like ours provide the labor.
We get a reward from the work ourselves when we get to meet homeowners like Polly and her daughter Nell--most of our crew spent the week drywalling their house. Before she got in touch with Pnola, Polly had lost over $70,000 to fraudulent contractors--'contractors' who would insist on money upfront, do poor work or no work at all, and then disappear. No name, no working phone number. It's an unfortunately common story in the Gulf Coast.
A few of us spent the better part of the week at the home/food pantry of Bishop Ella O'Neal. We have been helping her, her pantry, and her church since our trip last spring. Bishop Ella has converted her home in the Upper Ninth Ward into a food pantry, serving over 700 neighborhood residents a month. This, of course, means that the house is unlivable, as it is filled with pallets of food. And that means that Ella, 71, and her husband Henry, 85, live in the one-room office of their church across the river in Gretna.
Ella herself spent over $8,000 on two electricians who left her with five rooms in the house still without power. Add to that a hard freeze in January that left the house with cracked plumbing, and we had our work cut out for us. Still, we left her with all of her electrical working, her pipes not leaking, and a new shower and toilet. A couple of our people also came over to help with food distribution on Wednesday.
Altogether, it was another great trip. We have found over the years that our volunteers not only learn a lot about New Orleans, volunteering, and activism, but also about themselves. Special thanks go out to All Nations Baptist Church of Iowa City, IA, who once again lent us their van for the trip. Check out our website for more pictures and details, and a short video. And if any of you out there are interested in next year's trip, drop us a line.
Tom Javoroski
President, Gamers For Humanity
The Phoenix of New Orleans is a federally recognized 501(c) 3 non-profit organization devoted to the rebuilding and recovery effort of the Lower Mid-City neighborhood in Orleans Parish. What was once a working-class neighborhood with thriving churches, schools, small and large businesses is now a community struggling to overcome unemployment, poverty, and the devastation rendered by Hurricane Katrina.
The Lift Thy Name Up Higher Food Pantry is a federally recognized 501(c)3 non-profit serving over 2000 individuals living in the impoverished Lower Ninth Ward.
Gamers For Humanity is a federally recognized 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to encouraging gamers and non-gamers to provide human services to people in need.
