Thirty one students boarded the bus today to begin their week of ALSO in the core of the city of Saskatoon. Our first stop was at the MCC Center for a brief orientation to inner city issues. Our first activity led by Myriam Ullah was an exercise where the students were challenged to put a face on poverty by creating a profile of a person trapped in the cycle of poverty. This was our introduction to the "Chalo" program. Chalo is a hindi word that means 'let's go'. Let's go learn, let's go do!
Lexi Chalus working with her group Laura Civica, Abby Stewart and Suzanne Luitjens to put a 'face' on poverty.
We were then divided into 6 groups. Each group was to complete the 'Race For Survival'. The 'Race for Survival' was about challenging oneself through experiencing similar challenges that an individual on social assistance without a home in Saskatoon, would have to go through. We were dropped off at various location in the cities core and asked to find the answer to questions such as:
1. Find 3 help wanted signs-would they hire someone who doesn't have a resume and has a criminal record?
2. You're running low on groceries-find the nearest grocery store and price out eggs and bread.
3. Your family has not received a cheque from social assistance yet you need to pay your rent-where do you get a cash advance? How does it work?
4. Find free entertainment for your family.
and many more.
Heidi Epp and Coby Friesen pricing out the best deal for bread.
Need Cash?
We were also challenged to find a place to eat our lunch.
Jesse Woznickzka,Abby Stewart,Krista Dueck,Taylor Roy and Kyle Parton were lucky to find somewhere warm!
Brayden Holman, Dylan Markwart,Coby Friesen,Heidi Epp and Julia Epp weren't so lucky!
Our second activity for the day was an afternoon of service. We spent the afternoon serving at The Foodbank, The Clothes Depot, The Village Green Furniture Store and at the Appleby Program.
Coby Friesen, Taylor Roy and Leon Pomedli package portions of meat at the Foodbank
Tiffany Lavoie sorting 'new arrivals' at the Clothing Depot
Tim Dueck on clean up at the Village Green
Rachel Klaassen cleaning the apartment for the Appleby program
For our last activity for the day we were again divided into 6 groups of 5 people for the Food Activity. Two lucky groups were given $4.00/person to plan and buy groceries for supper. These two groups also had access to a stove and oven and were allowed to shop at Safeway. Another two groups were given $1.50/person to carry out the same assignment except for the limitations of only having a microwave and a toaster oven for preparations. These two groups were allowed to shop at Extra Foods. The last two groups were also given $1.50 to prepare supper but they did not have any cooking facilities and were only allowed to shop at the Giant Tiger. We then returned to the MCC center to prepare supper and partake of our choices together.
Danielle Hunt, Krisha Buechert, Erik Epp hope their $9.00 is enough to pay for their nutritious supper choices.
After meal clean up we spent sometime debriefing and journaling.
Leon Pomedli and Spencer Russell begin their first journal entry for the week.
Holly Wheeler and Abby Stewart
The purpose of the exercises today was to open our minds to a collection of moments in the life of an individual who lives in a core neighborhood so we could grow in understanding. Without understanding, it is hard to love. We learnt many things today, least of all was that we found we did not have to travel far from home to find poverty or a place to serve the people caught in this cycle.
No comments:
Post a Comment