Reflections on Community Service

World AIDS Day was a few weeks ago, and Team Learning 2 had the opportunity to participate in a community service project to honor the day. As our (albeit assigned) group name suggests, we are big fans of learning over here in Learning 2, and we saw this as an opportunity to learn more about an important issue that affects the Washington, DC, community. We got to go over to Damien Ministries with some other AU students to help make their lives a little easier. Damien Ministries, as we learned, is an organization that helps provide services for people with HIV and AIDS in the area. We all know that AIDS is a terrible disease to have to deal with, but it might be easier to overlook the fact that many people who suffer from AIDS are also suffering from poverty. This might make it hard for them to afford their medication, food, clothes, basically anything that affects people living in poverty. We helped clean up and organize the food bank and clothing donation center, which are frequented by the people the Damien Ministries serves. Although the several hours of service we performed absolutely pales in comparison to the work that Damien Ministries does on a daily basis, we are honored to have gotten to help in some way.

This experience gave us an appreciation for the work that needs to be done to try to make life easier for those people who are living in our city and living with an as-of-yet incurable disease. From the perspective of Jumpstart, this is an issue that in the past has played a role in early childhood education because children could be born with the disease if their mothers had it. However, we were told that this past year only one baby was born infected in the city, so that could be considered progress. The themes of poverty and health are certainly inseparable from making sure kids excel in education, and as Jumpstart corp members there is unfortunately not a whole lot we can do to change the health and socioeconomic situation of the children we work with. We can, though, keep these outside factors in mind when we’re in the classroom with students who may be restless or disinterested. By trying to understand the environment a student comes from, we are better able to make the most out of a child’s classroom experience. By doing service outside of the classroom and in the community, we gain a better grasp of the situation and hopefully make some positive changes in our kids’ lives. Because, of course, we want the best for them.

~Team Learning 2