Follow The Youth Group!

For more information about the Interfaith Youth Action Group, and how you can get involved in the coming years, click here.

In the next year, the youth group will continue working on the Millennium Development Goals and growing their own leadership and activism!

Here's some information about the group, put together by Kalsoom & Meg who will be running the group in the next year:

The Interfaith Youth Action Group (IYAG) is a pilot initiative in the Washington, D.C. area that empowers high school students from diverse backgrounds to become leaders in interfaith dialogue and service. The program has been designed and initiated by 9/11 Unity Walk, a not-for-profit organization that brings people of all backgrounds and faiths together to walk in unity, and ML Resources Social Vision, a venture philanthropy that invests in innovative initiatives, and builds on previous efforts by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s Faiths Act Fellows.

IYAG has four main objectives. First, the program will guide selected Youth Action members (also known as the leadership core) to design year-long community service initiatives with both a global and local expression, using the United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals as their platform. Second, it will empower and build capacity of these youth members to become leaders and role models in their respective faith communities and schools. Third, IYAG will foster dialogue among participants on issues of faith, ethnicity, and race. Finally, it will create momentum and deliver impact of these efforts in the Washington, D.C. area.

To get involved or learn more, please contact Meg Poole, 9/11 Unity Walk at mpoole@meridian.org, or Kalsoom Lakhani, ML Resources Social Vision at klakhani@mlresourcesllc.com.

Marcus Shares Reflections on Malaria:

In addition to our exploration of faith communities, institutions, and New Orleans, we also spent our trip exploring the global battle to end deaths due to Malaria.

Trip participant, Marcus, shares some thoughts about Malaria:

Weeks after the New Orleans trip, I still embrace the ideals and morals that I learned from my experience. I learned a lot about what it means not to lose hope in something or give up on anything. I also learned a lot about Malaria and what it does to different areas of the world. Malaria and New Orleans go hand and hand because after Hurricane Katrina there was a lot of stagnant water which is a harvesting ground for various types of bugs. However the people in New Orleans did not have to worry about the effects of malaria because the United States has eradicated disease. However poorer countries around the world do not have the funds for the disease. The UN has established the Millennium Development Goal, which aims to eradicate Malaria by 2015. But this is an uphill battle. Many organizations have stepped in to help out the cause of malaria, which we want to help out with. Interfaith Youth group has planned out ideas to raise funds for organizations that help fight malaria in less developed nations.

People can donate money to Project Muso, one such organization doing incredible, life saving work, at http://www.firstgiving.com/sarahandbenjamin.

Back in DC, Now the REAL Work Begins:

The group returned from New Orleans on Friday, April 2nd. I asked several participants how they felt as they got off the plane. Their answer: "exhausted." We had an extremely full week - visiting with seven different religious communities or houses of worship, putting in nearly thirty hours of work on the home, touring the French Quarter, Ninth Ward, and other areas of the city, visiting a health clinic, dialoguing, learning, hanging out, and having fun!

Now that we are back in DC, the group is going to bring home what they learned in New Orleans and share the stories they heard with others. Many of them have already begun to do this - with their families and close friends.

The group will be meeting again on April 11. There, they will continue planning their next steps!

And, of course, it wouldn't be an InterfaithInNewOrleans blog post without some pictures!

Here is a shot of the group on the last day at our farewell brunch - eating delicious, vegetarian soul food from Cafe Bamboo:


And finally, before we boarded our plane from New Orleans, I asked a few of our participants to share what they would be taking with them from the trip. Their responses are below:

Mitchell shares his reactions:


Sara:


Elise:

Some More Photos:

Here are a few photos from our last day in New Orleans...!

Ms. Barbara presents the group with presents on our last day at the site:


Ms. Barbara with Sara, Elise, and Ariana:


Ms. Barbara says goodbye to the group (and implores everyone to return again!):


Emmanuel, Udodi, Heni, and Nate do their hair before going to the French Quarter!:

Day Five: Leaving New Orleans, Back to DC

This morning, we returned to the work site to say goodbye to the family whose house we had worked on. Barbara - a good friend and neighbor of Ms. Boutte - presented all of us with gifts from New Orleans, mostly consisting of Mardi Gras beads and other toys and tshotshkes that are common for Mardi Gras. She implored the group to return home and put the items on display so that everyone can see the good time that we had in New Orleans.

At our final brunch today in New Orleans (at a restaurant serving vegetarian Soul Food!), people reflected on their trip and the messages that they want to take back with them. Many people talked about how inspiring all of the people we met are - rebuilding their lives after a devastating storm.

Here is a brief summary and reflection on our last days from Mitchell and Heni:

Hi, my name is Mitchell brown, I am 16 years old and I go to Mc Kinley Tech high School. And I am Heni Maghfiroh, I’m 18 years old and I’m an exchange student from Indonesia. Yesterday what did we do after painting Mrs. Bute’s house we went to health alliance Clinic Center, we discussed what the center is about and what roe the center played in rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina. We also got a tour of the building and it’s a developmental stage. Over all we learned about the relative health condition of children and adult before and after Katrina. Its plans to combat pressing health issues in school district and the community at large.

Afterwards we were introduced to the local Baha’i’ community and have dinner with a presentation about the baha’i’ faith. We discussed how the local community was affected by Katrina. And we also learned about the teachings of Baha’u’llah, which are world unity and displacement of social injustice, that are the central message of the Baha’i’ faith. Later on, we went bowling at Rock ‘n Bowl with a few members of the local Baha’i’ community. We celebrated Allison’s birthday and we had time to relax, jam, and dance. After bowling, we ate beignet at café du monde.

Today we said goodbye to the family whose house we did service work at and received nifty new orleanian gifts from the family. Next, we had an hour to shop at the French market for items we wanted to take back home to remind us of our time in new Orleans. We had lunch at an all vegetarian restaurant called café bamboo.

-Mitchell and Heni

Photos and a Summary from Day 4:

We have just wrapped up our last full day in New Orleans. On the bus today on the way back to the hotel I asked the group who wants to spend more time in New Orleans. The response: a chorus of 'Yeah's.

We worked on the site today, priming the front and back of the house and also doing some clean up around the site. The work is slow at somepoints, but the difference between now and at the beginning of the trip could not be more evident. The house used to be littered with debris, and paint chips were literally falling off the decaying walls. Now, they have been sanded smooth and a clean layer of white primer has been applied. Holes and gaps in the boards have been caulked. Although it was sometimes tedious, by caulking and priming the boards, it will ensure that they last for years to come.

After working, we went to the Faith Health Alliance. The Faith Health Alliance is an interfaith health clinic that services uninsured but working individuals. We learned about how Hurricane Katrina has affected public health indicators in New Orleans and the role of the clinic in providing this much-needed service. From the Faith Health Alliance, we went to dinner at the house of a local Baha'i family. They provided dinner for the group and shared about the small Baha'i community of New Orleans, as well as the theology and history of the Baha'i faith.

And then, we wrapped up the night with two New Orleans classics: Rock & Bowl followed by a visit to Cafe du Monde. Rock & Bowl is a bowling alley that often features live music and dancing. We got there around 7, and bowled for two hours. The group invented many creative ways to roll the ball down the lane. Looking at the group tonight at Rock & Bowl it was obvious how well everyone had bonded over the course of the trip. They spent the entire evening laughing together. The band took the stage about 15 minutes before we left, but we got to catch a bit of the live Zydeco music - a New Orleans classic.

After that, we surprised the group with a visit to Cafe Du Monde, a coffee shop in the French Quarter that serves Beignets - a pastry that is similar to a donut. Cafe Du Monde is a New Orleans must, and we didn't want to leave the city without a visit. Unfortunately for those of us observing passover, we couldn't eat Beignets (no flour during Passover!), so we had to settle for some delicious Pecan Praline Ice Cream (another New Orleans classic!).

All in all, it was a festive and wonderful last night in town. Tomorrow morning we will be going back to the work site, then to brunch at a local restaurant before heading to the airport!

Here are some pictures from today:

A group shot from the Work Site:


The group looks at a packet of information at the Faith Health Alliance, documenting the public health indicators of New Orleans and Louisiana:


The group gets a tour of the Faith Health Alliance's clinic from its Executive Director.


A few shots from Rock & Bowl:








The group enjoys Beignets at Cafe Du Monde:




Stay tuned for some final reflections from the group participants tomorrow!

Photos and an Update from Day 3

Today was another full day. The group really began to feel progress on the work site - as we began to prime (painting with a white, sealer) the outside of the house that they had spent many long hours sanding and caulking. The primer has made a huge difference and vastly improved how the house looks... where there was once peeling, damaged paint and boards, there is now a smooth white surface.

After working, we went on a walking tour of the French Quarter - the oldest section of New Orleans, where the French & Spanish influences are on full display in the food, music, and architecture.

After the tour, we had dinner at "Wednesday at the Square" - a weekly festival with live music and food vendors. Unfortunately it was a bit more crowded and loud than we had hoped - so we ate dinner across the street in another public plaza - but it was a beautiful evening as the sun set over the park!

We then returned the hotel, and the group is currently working on a 'poverty simulation' - an activity where they have to create budgets for families that are living on a certain, limited amount of money. The simulation looks at families in Washington DC as well as in the developing world.

I wasn't as active with my camera today, but here are a few photos from the day:

A few shots from the work site






Before starting the tour of the French Quarter, Bob, our tour guide, showed the group a map of New Orleans, which showed areas of the city that are above and below sea level. On the tour, we could see the flood walls and gates that surround the city and keep out water from the Mississippi River.:


The group listens to Bob as he explains how the ground on which much of the French Quarter is built is uneven and moves often, because of the water and soil mixture. It's hard to see from the photo, but the wall behind the group had visibly sunk on the right side, making it uneven.