Tag Archives: responsible voluntourism

How Miss Gloria’s Garden is making a difference in New Orleans

Meet the woman behind Miss Gloria’s Garden–a community garden in New Orleans that helps locals eat healthy by giving them free organic food.

By Heather Newgen

It’s 9:00 am and as volunteers arrive, Gloria Ward, 72, has already watered the entire community garden and is moving onto the next project. She stops to excitedly greet everyone and tell them about Miss Gloria’s Garden, a space where locals can stop by and take produce at no cost.

“The community by and I let them take vegetables for free. You can come and get anything you want here,” Ward explains to the new group of people volunteering for the day.

RELATED: Harlem Grown: How one man is transforming a NYC neighborhood from the ground up

“It’s important for me to do this so I can help other people,” she said.

Ward is known in New Orleans for her kindness and generosity, something her daughter Zada Summers says locals are taken back by.

“People are always surprised like why would you do this? It’s like why wouldn’t you do this? If you grow food that you like, you can’t eat it all. So why not share it with other people?”

Ward self-funds Miss Gloria’s Garden and relies on volunteers for help.

“I need volunteers to come help me with the weeding and maintaining. I just like volunteers cause I meet a lot of young people and see where they’re going in their lives,” she revealed.

Ward works 10-12 hours a day in the garden and loves to see the community enjoying Miss Gloria’s Garden. She created what she calls “a safe space” for people to come and be themselves.

In addition to growing healthy organic food, the garden can be used for cooking and sewing classes, as well as arts and crafts for kids, yoga and meditation.

Miss Gloria’s Garden also has movie nights, concerts and other great events.
For more information visit www.missgloriasgarden.com.

Harlem Grown: How one man transformed a NYC neighborhood from the ground up

Why Tony Hillery left his thriving limousine business and started Harlem Grown–a nonprofit helping NYC kids getting healthy.

By Kristen Kabel 

Ten years ago, Tony Hillery was living the American Dream. He was a successful business owner, had a house in the suburbs and was able to send his kids to private school. But then the financial crisis hit in 2008 and his company was severely impacted. Depressed about the economic state of the country, he went for a ride on the subway and randomly got off at 135th and Lenox in Harlem.  Half a block away was an elementary school and he decided to volunteer. For a brief time he taught parents the importance of education, which was ironic since he was a high school dropout.

After about three weeks, he realized that wasn’t the right role for him and quit, but he never stopped thinking about the kids and how he could help them. Knowing that the children relied on school lunches, lived in poverty and didn’t have access to healthy affordable food, he found a new mission–Harlem Grown.

Hillery, a 2017 CNN Hero, turned the vacant lot across from the school into a youth farm where he grows organic produce. The kids from the school come and help grow the produce, which is then given to anyone in need for free.

The first year they grew 38 pounds of vegetables, which was a wonderful accomplishment, especially since Hillery had never grown anything before. However, he soon realized there were other programs he could implement to help the community when he sent chard home with one of the girls from the school. The next day he asked how it was and the girl said her mom threw it out because she didn’t know what to do with it. That sparked the idea of teaching these young children about healthy food and how to prepare it. So Harlem Grown started free cooking lessons among other classes offered to the neighborhood.

To date, Harlem Grown currently has 13 “farms” and grows thousands of produce a year for communities to enjoy at no cost.

Volunteers are needed to help on the farms, no experience required, and those with specialized skill sets are always welcome for special projects. For more information please visit http://www.harlemgrown.org/volunteer.

Watch how a team of hairstylists and makeup artists give back to Puerto Rico

With Puerto Rico still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and damaging earthquakes, volunteers are stepping up to help the island in unconventional ways.

By: Heather Newgen

Puerto Rico has always been a popular vacation spot and destination for tourists, but for Lou Rod it’s something much more–it’s home.

“My family, including my grandparents and mother, were both impacted by the hurricane. It broke me,” Rod revealed.

Although he no longer lives in Puerto Rico, he comes back often to visit family and friends, and when he saw the amount of destruction and how many people were affected by the events, he decided to do something about it.

Rod who is the, Founder and CEO of MLR Artist Management, created the campaign Care 4 Puerto, which helps the locals in a few  ways. One, he travels with his creative team of professional hairstylists, makeup artists and manicurists to the island to give residents makeovers. Two, he brings essential supplies like clothing, diapers and batteries to hand out to anyone in need and he also helps stimulate the economy by hiring locals for the days he’s in town doing a variety of projects.

RELATED: How a team of hair stylists and makeup artists helped Puerto Rico “feel human again”

“A lot of times when you think about giving service after such devastation, you think about rebuilding a home or getting water supplies or food supplies–those are the basic needs to survive. We’re not necessarily building houses here. We’re not in those types of industries or trades, but we were able to use a trade that we specialize in. We were able to create a project where we’re providing comfort, we’re providing luxury services that is the first that’s taken away from individuals because they’re trying to make ends meet,” Rod told The Voluntourist.

For the last three years, the talented group of artists have visited Puerto Rico on their own dime to volunteer, and will continue to do so on an annual basis.

Please watch the video to see Rod and his team in action as they give back and make a positive impact in Puerto Rico.

Watch World Vets in action as they help reduce the street animal population in Nepal

Watch how a team of volunteer veterinarians from World Vets give free medical care to street dogs in Nepal.

By Heather Newgen

It’s 7:30 a.m. and volunteer veterinarians from World Vets head to work. As they make their way through the dusty streets of Thamel, the touristy area of Kathmandu, some are laughing, others are excitedly chatting and one befriends a street dog they call Ryder.

The group of vets, who are from the U.S., Canada and Australia on this trip, have one common goal–to sterilize as many dogs as possible in an effort to reduce the massive population, improve their quality of life and decrease public health issues for underserved communities. According to local reports, an estimated 25,000 dogs live on the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.

As they catch their ride to a makeshift camp an hour outside the city where they’ll perform surgeries and medical treatments, they coax Ryder onto the bus with food and put him at ease. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to be neutered.

World Vets is an organization that provides free medical care for animals in 48 countries. All volunteers are veterinarians, licensed and non licensed technicians, pre veterinary, veterinary and technician students, as well as those who are simply animal lovers with trained vet skills.  All volunteers pay for their own expenses.

Related: See what it’s like to volunteer at Sneha’s Care in Nepal

“I love it because it’s something I strongly believe in—the sterilization of animals everywhere,” Dr. Helen Valentine, whose been on three World Vet trips said . “It really helps decrease the overpopulation and it’s an opportunity to travel and see the world and meet up with a great group of people,” she added.

To make the biggest impact, World Vets partners with local organizations such as animal welfare groups, foreign governments, non-governmental organizations, agriculture and public health officials, as well as, a wide variety of veterinary professionals to learn about the needs of communities in the countries they service.

For more information visit https://worldvets.org/.