Issue date: 5/22/06 Section: News

Volunteers give medical assistance in New Orleans

Within the first week of the hurricane Katrina disaster, the organization Common Ground was quickly founded to provide immediate emergency relief for the hurricane victims and the community that was struggling to rebuild itself. It began as a grass roots movement that provided aid to the citizens of New Orleans, where state and federal support had failed. Left with very few resources to get by, members of the community as well as volunteer students, activists, and other humanitarians came together to build health car facilities, food and supplies distribution centers, first aid services, legal services, and Women's centers all in the name of collective solidarity.

But now that families are beginning to return back to their homes, and often only the remains of their homes, the group has begun to shift some of its focus on more than just the short term needs. They are also concentrating on the long term rebuilding process that stands before them. Common Ground is very much still a grass roots organization, but as the next hurricane season quickly approaches the group has already expanded into a multi-programmed operation. Hurricane preparedness is not the only focus of groups like Common Ground, and now the group is on a campaign to spread their current aims and ongoing objectives in an effort to gain much needed continued support.

On May 5, in the fourth floor lounge of the Wheatley Building, an informal group gathered to talk about the issues that are still facing the families affected by the disaster in the gulf coast region, and how groups like Common Ground are providing aid. Emily Posner and Carolyn Campbell, two volunteers from Common Ground, came to UMass Boston to talk about the situation and to engage more people in these issues. Emily is a volunteer from Portland, Maine, but in the few months that she has spent working in Louisiana, she's already developed a keen awareness of the racial and economic injustice that many saw as the underlying contributor to the extent of the hurricane Katrina tragedy. She emphasized that the participatory nature of Common Ground was a vital element in the rebuilding of New Orleans, and that the local community must use their strength in numbers to affect the government's next steps in the city's reconstruction.

"We need to meet these people's needs so that once their short term needs are met, they can become involved in the political process," said Emily.

Continued...

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