Michigan's AmeriCorps Member Council - Posting #21

Hello again, my name is Bridget Ferrigan and I serve as an AmeriCorps*VISTA through Michigan Campus Compact. VISTA deals primarily with reducing poverty through indirect service and capacity building. Michigan Campus Compact utilizes the VISTAs in its program to create sustainable programs at member campuses around the state to reduce poverty in the local area and build connections between the campus and community through volunteerism and service-learning.

One of the main impacts of poverty is hunger. I’m sure we have all been hungry at some point in our lives—forgetting to eat on a busy day, skipping breakfast when we’re running late to school or work—but many of us, including me, have not experienced real hunger. I’ve never gone a day without eating something (even during those grueling finals weeks during college, I’d manage to find a muffin and coffee when I didn’t have time to have a real meal while writing a few 20-page papers). I’ve never had to choose between buying food for my family and having a safe place to sleep at night. I’ve never worried about going blind because of a lack of Vitamin A in my diet. We didn’t worry when the broccoli my mother once planted in her small vegetable garden failed miserably because we could just go to the store and buy some. I’ve never truly worried about having food.

I recently went on a week-long alternative spring break trip with 18 students and two faculty members from the college at which I serve to the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas. On this trip we served at the ranch and learned about poverty, hunger, and sustainability. Heifer has bases all around the world where they donate animals and educate communities on the proper care and well-being so they can pass on the gift. Heifer also provides training on environmentally sound farming, medical care, and self-reliance.

Most of our week was spent being educated about Heifer International and what they do for people around the world, as well as doing service around the ranch and learning about sustainable practices with farming, animals, and the environment. It is one thing to hear statistics and to watch videos and see pictures of those in poverty, but it’s another thing to deal with conditions these people face daily. Towards the end of our week there, our group and groups from two other colleges stayed overnight in the Global Village, part of the Heifer Ranch that represented six living situations from around the world (a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, a small house in Guatemala, a refugee camp tent, a bamboo hut in Thailand, makeshift shelters urban slums, and a Zambian brick hut). We were broken up into “families” and some were given resources baskets of food and cooking utensils; one person was “pregnant” and another had to deal with some physical disadvantage such as an immobile limb or malaria. Not everyone received resources—they would have to bargain or beg if they wanted to eat or have a fire.

In the end, all the groups came together to cook dinner so that everyone would have something. Cooking food for nearly 40 people when one has a stove and countertops is hard enough. We did it during a cold, rainy night with wet wood that made smoky fires and ended up with just enough for everyone to have a few vegetables and a spoonful each of rice and porridge. My family group was assigned to the hut in Thailand, so we huddled together to block out the cold wind that blew through the bamboo walls and tried not to think about how badly we needed to go to the bathroom, since trudging along the muddy path to get to the composting toilet (AKA “squatty potty”) through the near-freezing rain was not something we truly wanted to do. However, we were lucky—two groups in the Urban Slums had leaky roofs and couldn’t avoid getting wet or sleeping in a puddle. In the morning, breakfast was not an option since the constant rain had flooded every one of the fire pits. We performed morning chores, which ranged from feeding the various animals to washing the dinner dishes and chopping wood.

While it probably sounds like a terrible experience, every single one of the students and advisors came out with a new appreciation for what they had in their lives. The point was not to experience poverty so that we come away with pity for those who live with it on a daily basis, but to understand their situation so that we may work with them to improve it, and to go back to our homes and educate others. This extends many of the ideals of what we do as AmeriCorps members—we learn to give a hand up, and not a handout, by living and working with individuals and communities and building sustainable programs and educating those who have the power and ability to change and improve the world.

Have you ever had an experience that changed your view of a certain group, or of the world? Did it motivate you to educate others about it and work towards change, and how so? With AmeriCorps Week coming up, I know a lot of us will be working together to change our world!