Blog #5

Looking back on all the experiences that I had throughout this service-learning experience, the two types of events that we participated in were very rewarding. The first of these is packaging meals at the Open Hand kitchen. It was really rewarding to actually see how many people were going to benefit from these meals. For four continuous hours, we helped package about twenty to thirty meals. Just being able to be part of a process that was providing healthy and nutritious food to some of the people in Atlanta without which would certainly die really gave me a lot of self-satisfaction.
The second Open Hand activity that we took part in was meal delivery. This part of the community service was even more rewarding than simply packaging the meals. Even though we weren’t able to do as much meal delivery as we intended to do, it was really rewarding to see the faces of the people we were delivering food to light up when they saw the Styrofoam boxes in which we were delivering the food. To see how happy these people were when they saw the meal that they were getting for the day, really made me appreciate the volunteer work I was doing for them. Also, it was really sad to see the conditions some of these people lived in. The major delivery we made was in downtown Atlanta, near Georgia State. It was some sort of rundown apartment building that had been turned into a center for people with AIDS. It’s very sad that these people are forced to live in these kinds of conditions, mainly because they have contracted AIDS.
This experience will help me in the future by enabling me to better communicate with people I don’t know, especially in enabling me to have prior experience in making a professional presentation to a group of people. The making of the brochure was the area that will help me the most by teaching me how to present information in a professional manner. The experience I got through making that brochure is something that could significantly help me in the future.
I can see myself doing volunteer work for this organization again, but only once I get a car. I enjoyed the work I did for this organization, but it’s very hard to get to by using Marta. The work that this organization does for people with AIDS is something that very few organization do exclusively for these people, who are as much human beings as the rest of us, and whose needs are completely ignored by the government and the general population. I have previously done a lot of volunteering at a soup kitchen with my school, and enjoy it very much liked it. I also do not know of any other places to volunteer at, so this one is the most convenient. If I found out about another soup kitchen that was closer to campus or more accessible, I would volunteer there as well.
Volunteering with Open Hand did not actually help me understand the issues dealing with AIDS that we discussed in class because we did not actually deal with issues revolving around AIDS. The kitchen in which we worked could have easily been one for homeless people, or people with very low incomes for whom we were preparing food. The only difference is that since Open Hand prepares their food for people who had AIDS or other terminal diseases, they take extra precautionary measures to ensure that the kitchen is a very clean environment which helps prevent the spread of infection which could be deadly for many of these people.
This service-learning project helped me improve my woven communication abilities by making me have to communicate with others whom I did not know. Through this project, I had to communicate with both people at the Open Hand kitchen, as well as with the actual people to whom we were delivering the packaged lunches. Furthermore, this Wednesday, I am going to have to make a presentation about the work our group has done for the organization, which will also help me work on my oral communication skills. The brochure that I worked on for the organization helped me improve my written communication skills. In the creating a professional brochure with a purpose of explaining food-safety instructions to future volunteers, I had to help make a layout for this brochure that was appealing to the people who were going to read it, as well as easy to read while providing all the necessary information.

Blog #4

Many interesting topics were covered during the sex education talk about contraceptive options and STD’s that we had in class on Wednesday. What I found the most interesting out of all the things we talked about was that a huge portion of the talk was not actually about sex, but rather talking about human sexuality, and what it means, especially areas of which do not directly involve sex. Another thing that I found very interesting as well was that in Georgia, all the schools many of the schools are allowed to teach a comprehensive sex education, but that instead of doing that, each school board makes their own agenda, which more often than less ends up being an abstinence only program. Finally, the last thing that the speaker discussed that I thought was very interesting was the part about the laws concerning minors, especially girls, when it comes to going and getting treated at clinics. Planned Parenthood, on the behalf of which the speaker was speaking, lobbies the government in order to pass or retain laws that allow teenagers to make their own choices when it comes to having sex as well as the treatments they receive afterwards. What amazed me is that the government is trying to pass laws that make it harder for teenagers to receive these types of treatments by trying to make parental notification mandatory. What the government seems to not realize is that if they do this, they are going to increase the number of unwanted pregnancies, which is going to lead to more poverty, which leads to more crime…
This sex education talk directly intersects with the ideas, issues, and thoughts that were discussed during the viewing and our class discussion of The Education of Shelby Knox. The ideologies of Planned Parenthood of Georgia when it comes to sex education very closely parallel those of Shelby Knox. The documentary of Shelby Knox discusses the abstinence only sex education program that is present in most of the schools all across the United States. She discusses how it is flawed in that discussing sex only encourages teenagers to have sex, and doesn’t teach them how to have safe sexual practices. Planned Parenthood is also against this type of sex education because if teenagers decide to have sex even after having these sex education talks, then they are often very ignorant of the types of diseases out there, as well as what they can do to prevent them as much as possible.
Another thing that Shelby Knox discusses in her documentary is sex between non-heterosexual couples—gays and lesbians. She strongly believes in the universal right to know safer sex practices as well as the universal right to treatment when necessary. In the current sex education taught in schools, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals are completely ignored. Planned Parenthood knows that gays and lesbians, especially gays have a wide range of STD’s that affect them as well, the most serious of them being AIDS. They also include the sexuality and safe practices of gays and lesbians in their talks so they educate everyone, not just the majority of people. They also commonly treat gays and lesbians when they come in to their clinics.
This talk by Planned Parenthood of Georgia was the first time I have had a non-abstinence sex education class. Although I strongly believe in abstinence till marriage, I believe that it is up to every person to make that decision, and that there are many couples who are not going to make the same decision as me. If feel very strongly that the government needs to stop the abstinence only program, and begin to move towards a comprehensive sex program, which will continue to support abstinence, and will spend most of its time discussing this, but will also cover safe sex practices, when it comes to preventing pregnancies as well as STD’s. It is important for teenagers to know how protect themselves as well as how to have sex without becoming pregnant in the process, and the current education system does not provide them with this vital information. As long as our government doesn’t change to a comprehensive sex program, they are to be held accountable for a large majority of the unwanted pregnancies in this country.

Blog #3

Yesterday our group went to the AIDS Walk in Atlanta. When we arrived there, we called our coordinator, the person who we were supposed to work with there. However, he had a family emergency and was thus unable to meet us there. Instead, he told us to call a lady who was replacing him. We called her several times and left her a voicemail, but she did not reply. We then tried to find Project Open Hand. There was a huge open area where tables were set up. We walked in front of all the tables looking for Open Hand, but they either didn’t have a table or they had already taken down their table by the time we got there at around 1 or 1:30. Because we were not able to get into contact with our organization we walked a portion of the AIDS walk, took a look at all the promotional booths and looked at the AIDS quilt. While we were there we met people from other groups who were at the event which was fun because we were able to share our experiences at the walk so far.
Since we were not able to contact our organization we were unable to volunteer in a way that helped Project Open Hand. However we did find a booth that was giving out granola bars which our main coordinator, Roz Tucker had spoken about at the orientation we attended at the beginning of the year. These granola bars were advertized at 100% natural as well being highly nutritious. Project Open Hand’s goal is to provide food that is safe and nutritious food to people with terminal illnesses especially AIDS. These granola bars tied in with Open Hand’s mission.
What I enjoyed the most about my experience was seeing a drag queen. In both Before Stonewall and After Stonewall, many of the photos and movie clips were of drag queens but I had never seen one in real life. It was really interesting to see an actual drag queen, and see how they act. Another thing that I enjoyed was the AIDS quilt. It was really interesting to see how so many of these quilts were sewn together into quilts. Furthermore, the material on the quilt was really interesting. There were some quilts that were somber but the large majority of them were very joyful, and comical, bringing out the personality of the person who died. This was especially important because it showed that the people there were of all sexualities, race, religion,… and did not all fall under the AIDS stereotypes. The other thing that I enjoyed while was there was trying to find how to get the free AIDS walk shirt. We literally spent at least fifteen minutes walking through the booths trying to find out how to get the shirts as well as asking people who had them on. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in getting the shirt, but it was still a fun experience.
There were two main things that surprised me about the event. The first was how large the event was. I never expected there to be more than ten thousand people walk as well as many other people marching. There were so many different people: organizations, schools,… who attended the march. The second thing that surprised me was how joyful the event was. I expected the march to be somber considering the reason people were marching. Instead everyone there was happy, celebrating the lives of all the people who had died of AIDS or were currently HIV positive. That had a huge impact on me because the fact that many of the people who were walking probably have loved ones or know people who are suffering or who have died from AIDS can come to an event like this and celebrate those people’s lives and remember the happy moments, rather than simply mourning them, shows a lot of courage.

Blog #2

Blog #1

As of today, our group has completed several things concerning our Service-Learning Project. First of all we have all attended the orientation with the Project Coordinator last Sunday which taught us the basics about what Project Open Hand is and their mission. We have also all met together as a group and held a teleconference with our Project Coordinator in order to clarify details as to a tentative schedule of our volunteering hours (availability, travel concerns,…). Since we do not have access to a car which would enable us to participate in Open Hand’s meal delivery drives, all of us except for me have signed up to volunteer with Team Buzz, a Georgia Tech club which participates in a lot of different community service projects throughout the year. The only problem is that since there were only four available spots on the site, I was not able to sign up on the website. Today or tomorrow I am going to call up Team Buzz and see if there is any way they can add me to their roster of people who are coming so that I can get my hours at the same time as the rest of the group as well as well as get some experience in the meal delivery runs that Open Hand performs. The only other problem is that there is only one bus that goes to Open Hand really early in the morning and one that comes back to Georgia Tech in the afternoon so if the only way we can go to Open Hand is by the bus, then we have to stay there the entire day.
Since I was wrote my priority list on the different project proposals and was assigned Project Open Hand, I have learned a lot about the organization I will be working with over the rest of the semester. Project Open Hand began twenty years ago and has grown from being a simple church kitchen to being one of the biggest providers of home-delivered meals in the entire United States. Project Open Hand performs many different projects which come together to form what they call their “Comprehensive Nutrition Care”. In fact we are only going to participate in one of Open Hand’s six projects (The Prepared Meals Program).
The purpose of our project with Open Hand is to create a brochure discussing food safety for all those who will be volunteering in Open Hand’s kitchens in the future. This will keep the moderator present at Open Hand from being forced to constantly repeat the same directions several times a day throughout the entire week. This brochure will be accompanied by a video covering the same material but most probably in more detail. I will contribute to this project by helping my group format all the different rules on the brochure in an easily readable way that is also fun and appealing to the eye. I have also had experience with making brochures and posters for different classes in the past which will make the editing much easier. However, before even beginning the brochure, I will be volunteering in Open Hand’s kitchen and most likely their meal-delivery run. This will allow me and my fellow group members to experience these safety issues first hand, which will give us a greater understanding of why these rules are necessary.
I think that this project will be meaningful to me because even though I have experienced a lot of poverty over the course of my life having spent a lot of time in India, it can never hurt to see those are much less fortunate than themselves in order to realize and be more thankful for all the things that you have. I look forward to helping all these people by packaging all these meals for the poor and I hope to be able to do the meal-delivery run because I have never experienced that before.
This project intersects the aims and objectives of our course because one of the main goals of this project is to create a brochure that will explain health safety rules for future volunteers. The goal of this brochure is not for people to simply put it aside, but to actually pay attention to what is written down and then actually follow it. In order to do this we will have to use ethos, pathos, and logos, which are 3 essential parts creating an argument. The argument we are presenting is that people should follow all the safety rules for their and the people who are receiving the food’s benefit. By integrating these three concepts into our brochure, we will make the points we will back up the argument we are making in the brochure.