INDONESIA: New Project Photos!
If you haven’t been automatically redirected to our Flickr Photo page, please click here. Thank you for your interest & support!
Community Stories: Ibu Kasmabati, Indonesia
This is Ibu Kasmabati and her Mother (70 yrs), amidst the ruins of their family home in Sungai Geringging, Indonesia. On 30 September 2009, the 1st of two earthquakes struck West Sumatra and destroyed the dwelling that had housed their extended family since 1965.
Kasmabati works security and cleaning at the elementary school while her husband, Wan, sells chickens in the local market and works as a day laborer. Kasmabati and Wan’s joint income falls below the average monthly income for the area of $70 USD. Almost all of Kasmabati’s wages go towards uniforms, books, and school supplies for their 3 children, leaving the family with only Wan’s income to rebuild and meet the rest of the family’s needs.
HODR volunteers worked with Wan to deconstruct the home and salvage valuable materials for rebuilding. The trauma of seeing their collapsed home is now over and the rebuilding process begins.
With your donations and support we can help more families like theirs. With $250 we can supply a team of volunteers with tools to deconstruct earthquake-condemned homes, providing a clean slate to rebuild and as many as two-months-wages’ worth of salvaged bricks. With $700 we can support 20 volunteers for one week – that’s more than 1,000 volunteer hours helping families in need! We’re developing a shelter program, and while we’re still hammering out the details, for about $1,500 USD we hope to be able to build a family a transitional shelter, providing a safe place to live during the long process of rebuilding – currently many families are still living in tents.
Please give us millions of dollars so we can keep helping families in need. Okay, I guess we understand if you can’t give millions. But we do hope you’ll do all you can in this season of giving to help us provide safe space and shelter to Kasmabati & Wan, and other families like theirs. Your gift makes a direct impact.
Wishing you and yours all the best this holiday season!!
Thanks for your support!
-The HODR Team
A Day in the Life of a Volunteer – Project Sungai Geringging
Hi from Project Sungai Geringging!
In response to the recent earthquakes in Indonesia more than 50 volunteers from 11 countries have pitched in to help get the community back on its feet, and we’re excited to share this video that was put together by volunteers on-project. Thanks for your support!
KATRINA: Looking Back on the 4 Year Anniversary
BY DAVID CAMPBELL
Katrina hit four years ago today and Hands On Disaster Response, as we know it was born.
With our Thailand tsunami response behind us to learn and grow from, Katrina solidified our mission and model as a strong force in volunteer disaster response.
Looking back I think about how all of our lives have been affected by our time together in Biloxi, Mississippi –
- How it has influenced all who came together then and since “just to help,” and the dozens of volunteers who stayed for months, or years, still helping out and caring for the people of the Gulf Coast.
- The career paths of so many of those who volunteered with us that have changed toward studies or responsibilities in disaster management, public affairs, and related fields.
- The impact on HODR itself with subsequent projects around the world and in the US, which has grown since our days in Biloxi into a sustained organization with a vision and impact beyond our early expectations.
- And the really important things – the street signs are still up in Biloxi! It is amazing to see the long-lasting
impact of our 5 months helping Biloxi bridge the gap between rescue and recovery.
Councilman Bill Stallworth of Biloxi summarized the efforts of the 1,500 volunteers who pitched in during our project with the elegant statement – “When you gutted our houses, you ripped out despair, and you gave us hope.”
To everyone affected by Katrina we are always thinking of you and wishing you the best, today especially. And to everyone who came to help, thank you. Wherever you are now, know that your day, week, month or more volunteering made a difference in someone’s life.
David
Executive Director
Looking back:
HODR’s Katrina Response Project (then “Hands On USA” – HOUSA), September 2005 – February 2006
Project Updates & Accomplishments
NEW YORK: Field clean-up prognosis brightens
Improving
Field clean-up prognosis brightens, tax levy adopted
OBSERVER Photo by Tim Latshaw Inmate crews work to clean Hillis Field Tuesday afternoon. Plans are for the field to be reseeded, with new grass possibly appearing next spring.
By TIM LATSHAW, OBSERVER Assistant News Editor
POSTED: August 28, 2009
GOWANDA – As more of Gowanda School’s Hillis
Field becomes visible through the mud, the
outlook on the cleanup work that must be
performed on it has improved.
The Gowanda School Board discussed ongoing
work on the field during a special meeting, with
Superintendent Charles Rinaldi saying more
headway has been made in clean-up than
expected thanks largely to the help of inmate
crews.
Inmates from Lakeview Shock Facility in Brocton
began cleanup of the perimeter of the field Monday and worked so efficiently they were asked to return for further assistance, having since cleaned out beneath the bleachers and other areas of the field as well.
The school has also been approached by members of the community who wish to volunteer their own time and power to help clean the field. To cover any potential liability issues involved with the work, the school has gone through Hands-on Disaster Relief, a global disaster assistance agency that has recently set up a mobile center near the fire hall, to recruit and organize a volunteer effort.
Anyone who is interested in volunteering to help clean Hillis Field was encouraged to visit the Hands-on Disaster Relief mobile center for more information, but Rinaldi noted that extra hands may soon be unnecessary.
“The good thing is that progress has been so remarkable that by Friday, we may be down to going out there with pumpers and pumping water out of [the under-the-field drainage unit] may be all that’s left,” he said.
It is too early to determine how useful the field may be for sports activities in the coming future. Part of the field has apparently been too choked by mud for grass to regrow and is planned to be reseeded. The composition of the soil beneath the mud has been encouraging, though.
“It does appear to be good topsoil, frankly,” Rinaldi said. “What they’ve taken out of there smells like good, green earth. Not all of it smells good … but the earth we’re taking out smells like good garden soil.”
Damage to the track still appears substantial, with a layer of mud sandwiched between it and the layer of asphalt beneath. It was uncertain during the meeting how well cleanup of that substance would proceed.
The tax warrant in the amount of $4,565,081 for the 2009-10 school year was adopted at the meeting ahead of the Sept. 1 state deadline. Rinaldi said that Silver Creek School Superintendent David O’Rourke has already sought assistance from the state similar to the Flood Relief Act of 2007, which granted affected counties at the time a financial pool of property tax relief. Rinaldi has issued letters to the same effect to state legislators.
In other matters:
Gowanda School has agreed to let St. Joseph’s private school use some of its refrigerator and preparation space to make box lunches for its students, as the St. Joseph cafeteria, located in the school’s basement area, was wiped out by the flood. The arrangement is expected to last about six school weeks.
Grace Dudek was appointed to a half time position in the special subject tenure area of Education of Children with Handicapping Conditions.
Charles Ross was appointed as JV Football Coach.
Tammy Bradigan and Nelson Felt were appointed as substitute school monitors; Nancy Smith was appointed as a substitute keyboard specialist; Andrew B. Lord and Jessica Hojnacki were appointed as substitute bus drivers and Jacquelyn Abers, Keri Hayden and Michelle Lulas were appointed as teaching assistants. Lulas subsequently resigned as a part time school monitor.
Oakland Benefit Concert
HODR is proud to partner with Youth Movement Records (YMR) in presenting Wendy Darling in order to raise awareness and funds for our disaster response efforts that provide assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world, with maximum impact and minimum bureaucracy. Special thanks to John Hancock for organizing this event!
Friday, August 14, 7PM – All ages are welcome!
19th Street Theater in the historic FOX, Oakland, CA
Tickets are only $10 and all proceeds benefit YMR and HODR.
HODR in San Francisco! Thursday, July 30 2009
Join HODR on Thursday, July 30 in San Francisco! Executive director David Campbell is in town and we’ll be hanging out at The Royal Exchange for drinks and food from 5PM to 8PM. Volunteers, friends – everyone’s welcome! We hope to see you there.
Unfortunately Marc and his mom won’t be there, but David, Jeremey, John, and Stefanie will be! The Royal Exchange is right in the financial district and is just a few blocks from BART. Street parking is available. |
HODR at The Royal Exchange Thursday, July 30, 5PM – 8PM 301 Sacramento St, San Francisco, CA
|
Please RSVP to stef@hodr.org
TRIPLE YOUR IMPACT – Monthly Giving 2:1 Match
If 100 people sign up as Monthly Donors at $10 each, together you will contribute $12,000 over 1 year – funding that can drywall 12 homes, build 24 HODR Half Homes or fully fund a month-long tornado response project!
And our anonymous donor will donate twice whatever you do through August – that’s an additional $8,000 through the match if 100 $10 Monthly Donors sign up now!
Please sign up today and join the 27 Monthly Donors who are already contributing monthly in a big way! Thank you for your support and for helping us reach our goal of 100 Monthly Donors!
Forward this video to family and friends to help us spread the word about HODR and this opportunity to triple your impact! Click here and select the ‘Forward’ option at the bottom of the new screen.
VIDEO: Online All Hands Meeting
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for joining us on the first Online All Hands Meeting – whether you sent in questions, watched, chatted, emailed comments….however you were able to participate it was great to talk to you all! For those of you who couldn’t join, you can see the video below!
As we talked about in the meeting, we may not know when or where our next project will be, but there are LOTS of ways you can help support our future responses RIGHT NOW! – Monthly Giving – triple your impact through August!, volunteer socials or fundraisers, lend your technical services, talk to your company about HODR, tell us your HODR story to help spread the word…..the list goes on and on.
And remember, just because you can’t see us on your computer anymore doesn’t mean we’ve gone anywhere. As always you can continue to send ideas and questions to us at any time. This was our first time using Ustream, and like with all new technology there is a learning process for us to work through. Thank you for your chats and comments during the live stream, and to those of you who followed up and let us know what we can do better with the technology next time.
It’s great to be with you all on project and be able to have open communication through our nightly All Hands meetings, so it was very exciting to get to connect in a similar fashion through the internet off-project!!
Keep in touch!
-The HODR Team
All Hands Online & Hang-out in Boston
Join HODR on Friday, May 29 for our first Online All Hands Meeting, and on Saturday, May 30 to hang out in Boston!
As a new way to stay engaged with HODR volunteers and supporters we’re holding an Online All Hands Meeting – a live streaming video broadcast with chat capability for the HODR Team and the HODR Family to “talk” about all things HODR, wherever in the world you may be. So we don’t lose the human connection, the HODR Team will also be hanging out in Boston the evening of May 30th.
| All Hands Online Friday, May 29, 2009, 3PM EST go to www.ustream.tv/channel/HODR We’ll be collecting the questions to discuss ahead of time so please email questions, ideas, comments or concerns that you’d like addressed to Beca at Beca@HODR.org Plus sign up for a free ustream.tv username so you can utilize the chat feature to enter comments during the All Hands. |
HODR in Boston Saturday, May 30, 7-10PM Vox Populi 755 Boylston St., Boston The HODR Team will be in Boston and we’d love to see you! We’ll be hanging out at Vox Pupoli in Boston…volunteers, friends, everyone’s welcome! Check out the Facebook Event page. |
