The Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans needs your help! Three years after Katrina and the majority of residents are still displaced. We need smart and kind-hearted people to help rebuild a community and bring hope back to those who need it most.
I bet you’re wondering, “Alright, but how can I help?” Easy. Spend a semester studying at the University of New Orleans. I am collaborating with a community leader from the Lower 9th Ward who has big plans for his neighborhood and has already done incredible things. The emphasis of this trip is to spark awareness and to unite the Aloha spirit with Southern hospitality. How is this trip possible?
There’s a program that our campus is affiliated with called the National Student Exchange. This program allows UH students to domestically travel abroad and pay the resident tuition of the host college. Right now the resident tuition for the University of New Orleans is only $1,645! When airfare, food, and housing are included you come close to matching our rising tuition at home and you get an awesome life-changing experience. What have you got to loose? Just check out the University of New Orleans and National Student Exchange websites and contact us at hawaiicares9@gmail.com.
We are from Hawai’i and recently came back from a trip to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. The intention was to volunteer to help rebuild homes. While there, however, we began to realize that a lot more needs to go into building a community than simply yeilding a hammer. It’s about creating a community worth coming back to.
Right now the Lower 9th Ward is a bleak wasteland of broken promises and inaction. This is the ground zero of Hurricane Katrina and the poorest population of New Orleans. As you walk amongst the wreckage you get a feeling of complete neglect. Unfortunately the majority of evacuees (most of them elderly) who fled their homes three years ago are still displaced with no hope of being able to move back anytime soon.
We would like to create a project that brings awareness to the harsh realities the community members of the Lower 9th Ward face by extending that community to involve Hawai’i. We would like to show those who live in the Lower 9th that people from Hawai’i care about their problems.
