Hurricane Disaster Zone Becomes a Classroom
for GSSWSR Student in Law and Social Policy

When Akudo Ejelonu graduated from Bryn Mawr in 2005 with an A.B. in political science, she found the perfect professional training program for an activist with a profound interest in both community service and social policy. The day after graduation, she started summer courses at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, enrolling in its unique dual masters program in law and social policy and social work. She was beginning her first regular semester when Hurricane Katrina struck last fall. By December, the need for feet on the ground in the devastated Gulf Coast region seemed overwhelmingly urgent, and she took a leave of absence from the program to volunteer.

Ejelonu, right, with another volunteer

"I researched several avenues," Ejelonu says, "and found that a lot of relief organizations didn't have very good structures for accommodating and supporting volunteers. Finally I found a group called Hands On Network that welcomed people who wanted to start their own projects and work in the field. I registered online and then flew into Biloxi, Miss., on Feb. 2. They asked me about my background and skills, and pretty soon I was doing casework."

In Biloxi, Ejelonu worked on interior debris-removal and building projects as well as serving as a case manager for residents whose lives had been shattered by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"I was helping them make short-term and long-term plans to pick themselves up and get their lives back on track," Ejelonu explains. "I helped them find out what resources and services were available to them and served as an advocate for them while they negotiated the bureaucracies that control those resources."

"Although the work was overwhelming and limited resources were available, we accomplished a lot," she continues. "We were able to get FEMA trailers for several residents and to get rental assistance for others. We found permanent housing in shelters for homeless residents and helped some into HUD-subsidized public housing, as well as finding basic necessities like clothing and food. The volunteer group that I worked with really took casework to a whole new level."

"I'm proud of what we were able to do there, and it was very rewarding," Ejelonu says. "Some of these people were calling me their 'angel.' But it also put a lot of pressure on me because people were depending on me so much. Many of these people were much older than I am, and it's hard to see a grown person cry in frustration when you get unsatisfactory responses from FEMA or from other agencies. I wished that we had been able to do more for people, but we did what we could and were thankful that the residents realized and acknowledged this."

"Every day was a mental and emotional challenge," she says. "I was working from about 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and there was no distinction between my work space and my living space. I had to learn to take some 'me' time now and then, and to focus on meeting one goal of one person at a time instead of trying to take the burdens of the world on my shoulders."

Progress in East Biloxi, Ejelonu says, was happening relatively quickly. After a couple of months, she transferred to New Orleans to find a very different situation.

"Everything in New Orleans is much slower," she says. "It's a much larger city with a long history of corruption and mismanagement. It takes so long to navigate the politics that it's hard to get anything done."

Central City, the area of New Orleans where Ejelonu worked, she says, was already devastated — by poverty and crime — long before the hurricanes hit.

"We're trying to redevelop a community that was already in bad shape. We don't want to rebuild it to what it was before Katrina. We want it to be better; we are dealing not only with housing and rebuilding, but also with issues like violence and the community's relationship with the police force."

The first task Ejelonu's Hands On Network team undertook was door-to-door needs assessment and distribution of information about community resources and flood insurance.

"Some of the things people told us they needed were as basic as food and water," she says. "But we also needed to build a sense of community."

"We will be holding a community fair so that people can meet and greet their neighbors and find out what resources are available. Next, we plan to have a 'town hall' meeting and invite city officials and policy-makers to hear from residents about what they need.

"The challenge is to bridge the gap between residents and city officials."

Ejelonu will remain in the Gulf Coast through the summer, she says. She will continue to work on community development and activism in New Orleans. In Biloxi, she will help Hands On Network develop a pilot internship program with the University of Southern Mississippi whereby graduate students in the university's programs in social work will do casework with long-term recovery organizations like Katrina Aid Today.

"I've learned so much about how real-life politics works," she says. "I know this could be a valuable experience for other students, too."

For Ejelonu, the best part of her experience in the Gulf has been finding a community of like-minded volunteers.

"There are people from all over the country — all over the world — who are there to help rebuild," says Ejelonu, a Nigerian citizen who moved to Boston with her family at age four. "I felt such a strong connection with them; it made me happy and proud to be one of the people who are doers."

On a recent trip to Bryn Mawr, Ejelonu urged friends to heed the call to service in the Gulf Coast region: "I keep telling people, 'Everything is not all right down there,'" she says. "There's still dire need — for food, for money, for volunteers. Any way you can find to help makes you part of that community that undertakes collective action for change."

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