A
Katrina Q&A with
Shoestring Executive Director
Robert Langford
The
impact of Hurricane Katrina reached far beyond the most obviously
devastated areas south of Jackson. Right here in our community,
the storm caused disruption and pain to thousands of families.
Shoestring executive director Robert Langford sat down to
talk about the ways that our organization is trying to help.
How
did Hurricane Katrina impact you personally?
Just
like nearly everyone else around here, when the storm rolled
into town, my wife, two children and I tried to find somewhere
safe in our house to ride out the storm. We lost some huge
trees, but mercifully had no real damage to our house. My
kids liked the candles and flashlights at night for the first
couple of days without power and then, just as I did, they
got hot, cranky and tired of it all!
Did you witness a direct impact on the people served by Operation Shoestring?
So
many of our children and their families were stunned by what
happened locally because of Katrina. Not only was power out
at their houses and apartments, but many of them couldn’t
work because so many businesses were closed and gas was so
hard to get. I think it’s fair to say that a number
of our families who normally work hourly jobs with few benefits
probably lost 25% of their monthly income in September, and
that hit them really hard. For many who lost food because
of the power outage, they had to choose between buying replacement
food and paying their utility bill; and of course they chose
to feed their families first. We also saw that several of
our families opened their homes to families from the Coast
and New Orleans, which was incredibly gracious, but also
added a huge burden to their shoulders.
What
is Shoestring doing in response to the impact of Katrina?
It’s
been so affirming to see my co-workers here at Shoestring,
our wonderful volunteers and a good number of our funding
partners jump right in to helping those affected by Katrina
and Rita. With the assistance of our long-time partner the
Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) and local volunteers,
we’ve interviewed nearly 400 local families to determine
exactly how they were affected by the storms. Additionally,
we’re working with CCF, Farish Street Baptist Church,
and the local housing authority to provide services to about
100 families who’ve come up from the Coast and New
Orleans after Katrina.
One
of the most interesting projects we’re doing is working
with a number of organizations serving children (churches,
schools, other nonprofits, daycares, etc.) to help them create
child-centered spaces using educational, recreational and
arts materials donated by UNICEF. We’re distributing
nearly 100 foot-locker-sized boxes of those materials throughout
the local community to provide good-quality educational and
developmental opportunities for kids.
Why are organizations like Shoestring important with respect to natural
disasters like Katrina, both before and after they occur?
Beyond
being merely a conduit for immediate physical relief after
a disaster hits, Shoestring and other community-based organizations—and
I’d say this includes houses of worship—have
both the opportunity and responsibility to help create the
community infrastructure that is built by families, neighbors
and others working together for the common good. My hope
is that the community interconnectedness we’re helping
to foster here at Shoestring can serve as a way to make sure
that the economically poor and traditionally disempowered
don’t feel the brunt of both the immediate and long-term
negative effects of something like Katrina when it hits Jackson.
Is
there a faith lesson to be learned in the face of nature's
capriciousness? I'm thinking of both the larger picture,
and also in terms of "putting
faith into action".
It’s
inevitable that disasters will happen and there’s often
little we can do to prevent that. Still, there’s much
we can do to prepare to mitigate the severity of a disaster
like Katrina and to deal with its aftermath in as responsive
and positive way as possible. Here at Shoestring we often
talk about putting faith into action, which just our version
of the Biblical saying:
“So
faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James
2:17).
I
think that what we do at Shoestring—simultaneously
focusing on empowerment of neighborhood residents and fostering
reconciliation throughout our larger community—can
help prevent the misery we saw coming out of New Orleans
in the aftermath of Katrina. Our putting our faith into action,
by consistently showing that we really do love our neighbors
by treating them the way we’d hope to be treated, is
really what it’s all about.
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