Month: April 2016

Habitat for Humanity

Pre-service

What I know about habitat for humanity is that they are a huge organization around the world. Their mission is helping people especially who are low-income to won their dream house, by giving them a loan with no interest and helping them physically to build the house. By the way, those people who get the benefit from this program have to become involved in building the houses with a certain number of hours which is a really great idea. Another thing that I know about this great organization is they have a department called Restore where you can donate your stuff that you do not need anymore. These donations will help those people to Furnish their house with less money.

I think this experience will add new knowledge to me, and I will enjoy it as well, especially if it is going to be building a house, but I will be still happy with any kind of help. I am looking forward to seeing what I can do to help this awesome organization.

 

 

Post-service

Saturday morning, I woke up as early as any normal business day because I had to go to help with Restore, which is part of Habitat for Humanity. Our instructor Dr. Cate divided us into two groups to go these. I was with the first group, and we met our coordinator Mr. Ron.

He started by introducing the organization for us and how it works. And then he showed us the store, and everything there was donated. In addition, there was a part of the store for the not working stuff where they “repurpose” those things. The important thing and what we were waiting is what is our job would be and how we could help. Mr. Ron took us to a big messy garage and asked us to organize it and then clean it because they would start building a new house next week and they wanted to use the tools in this garage and they wanted to make more room for the new stuff too. We started classifying the tools and the equipment. For instance, we put all the construction tools on the left side of the garage and we removed a cupboard to the edge of the garage. Furthermore, we shelved all the hardboards in the side shelve. The last thing we did inside the garage was, we cleaned  all the surface from the dust. Mr. Rom came to give us another job which is transferring the palettes to their appropriate place. Eventually, we took some wooden boards and we leaned them against the wall.

I am delighted to go into this experience. In the end, I want to thank this incredible organization who is making people and the community going to a better level. And my thank goes to Mr. Ron who makes us comfortable to work with them. Last thanks to Dr. Cate who gives us this valuable chance to volunteer with this organization.

Abdulrahman Alaql – Saudi Arabia

This was my second time in the Stone Soup Food Share. The interesting point was that I “shared foods” with the same team, which I worked with in 2 years ago. The team members are still as energetic as 2 years ago when I saw them. The work we did was very fun both times.

I can clearly remember the first time I worked in Stone Soup that my mission was to chop foods. I chopped several bowls of tomatoes and so much garlic. After chopping, I also did the food serving part. I smiled with each person I serve and ask them “Which soup do you like?  Beef or cold tomato soup?”. It was a amazing day to me because that was my first time to do volunteer in food serving. I felt happy when I see smiles on people’s faces.

This time was my second time volunteering in the Stone Soup. I was familiar with the work chain in that kitchen and those equipments. The interesting part was that I find my chopping skills faster than 2 years ago. Also I organized  people around me to make a team work to process food preparation faster. I learnt a lot about team work this time which I do not have in 2 years ago.  Unfortunately, this time I cut my finger. It’s painful, but when I saw people eating my food and say thank you to volunteers, I felt good.

Before:

It is the second time for me to go to SAGE garden. The first experience was wonderful. It is a community garden that supplies 3-4 tons of vegetables or fruits every year to some families or organizations. And also, lots of people get benefits from SAGE garden.

SAGE garden provides many events for different groups of people. For example, there are summer camps for children, and lessons about growing plants for families. Last time, I met a nice woman who was Carrie. She bought us to cut weeds that hurt the growing of plants. The bad plants will grab nutrition that we provide for plants so that plants can not grow well.

This time I think I will enjoy this experience. I hope I can do better than last time, and help other classmates to do their work. After all, it is my second time. Maybe I will explain something for them.

After:

It was a beautiful weather. Even though I went to SAGE garden for the second time, it was a totally different experience. The first time I went there, I just cut some weeds that are not good for plants’ growing. At this time, I did the seed-tape first. This work needs patience. The seed tapes can help seeds grow easily, and also help seeds germinate.

In addition, I put seeds into soil. During this activity, I saw many slugs, which I had not seen in my first time because the season it is different. At the beginning, I was afraid of them. But It was lucky for me those slugs seemed not to move. Moreover, I weeded again, however, this time I was not doing well, due to my backache. Every time I used my power I felt uncomfortable with my back. I still tried my best to do these tasks. I hope I can help others.

As I mentioned above, the seed tape was the most interesting part of this volunteering experience. We put seeds embedded in paper. The seeds were already placed thinly along the tape. This means less time “tinning out” your rows and less seed wastage. Once the ground is prepared, the tapes are simply unraveled, cut to the desired length, laid on the soil, and covered over. Seed tapes are an efficient work saver in SAGE garden.

SAGE garden has a significant meaning for community. It can provide food for some place that need food and give people a chance to learn how to plant.

Students discussed homeless as a social issue in their home countries and also in the United States and critically examined its causes and effect on life in our societies. They also learn about organization like Benton Habitat for Humanity and Restore, which work to empower people to own their own homes by enlisting community support and “sweat equity” to get the job done.

At Stone Soup Kitchen, students saw where the food grown at SAGE garden, donated in drives throughout the community, and distributed by Linn Benton Food Share and partner agencies end up: feeding the Corvallis community delicious and nutritious meals

At Linn Benton Food Share, an agency of the Oregon Food Bank, students spent hours working to ensure that food was ready to be distributed to families who needed it. In class, they learned about how the Food Bank operates, how many people are served by the bank and partner agencies like food pantries throughout the country, and how much volunteers are needed to accomplish such large projects.

Student experiences

1-Abdulla Ali from United Arab Emirates .

PRE-SERVICE

Linn Benton Food Share:

I know a bit about the Linn Benton food share that we will work with today. I heard they help people who seek emergency food, by giving them food boxes from the Oregon food bank. We will go today as group to help and support the employees and the volunteers there. We might distribute food to the people there. We will be listening to their instructions, after that we going to do what they will give us. I am looking forward to knowing deeply about Linn Benton Food share. In addition, I want to know how they are organizing their work individually and collectively. I am quite nervous about how we will mange this work successfully, because this is the first time for me and the majority of my group. However, I expect our business will be easy because we will be working as group and that will  make the work lighter and faster.

Post –service

I really feel proud to have helped and supported the employees in Linn Benton Food Share. It was my second volunteering program that I have had in the United State. I was nervous but when I went there everything went well. My role there was to take the food from the donation boxes and sort them in the right place such as dry food, vegetables, fruit ,meat, beans and soup. We learned many things today. I was struggling at the beginning about how to sort the food in the right box. However, I fixed this issue when the supervisor explained to us how to divide each piece and sort it in the right box. She gave us important instructions about our business, such as: don’t  sort dented cans , sort the liquid slowly because there were glass and sort the food in the right box. When we were done with this job, we moved to break the boxes down to recycle them. Finally, we boxed the food with specific weight which was 24 Grams. After that we took a tour around the store to get knowledge about the rest of the store.