As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am a
member of the International Students Ambassadors. This is an awesome group with
local and international students, and we volunteer, organize events, and are
very active on campus. I think I should write a post solely on the Ambassadors
someday. Anyway, this past weekend we volunteered at the Casa Esperanza
Homeless Shelter, and it is precisely what I want to write about today.
Casa Esperanza is a shelter that helps people to
get back on their feet. Seriously, I really love that place. They help hundreds
of people from all sorts of backgrounds, from veterans to entire families
sometimes. But they require, among other things, their residents to be drug and
alcohol free. This means that everyone there is really trying to turn their
lives around. What surprised me the most, however, was how much the local
community and businesses cares and helps the shelter. They receive tons of donations
every week, from food to clothes, and there are always people to help. Indeed,
the whole place has such a good vibe, and it makes you feel good for being
there.
Coming from a developing country myself, where
poverty and homelessness unfortunately are far from unusual, it is pretty
interesting to see this other side of the United States. I think that when we
do volunteer work, and thus get in touch with a part of our country we know
exists but somehow end up not seeing, we realize how many things we take for
granted and how lucky we are.
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