Keep Your Stuffed Bunnies, We Need Sheetrock!

It is always fascinating to see the disconnect between people's perception of someone else's needs and their actual needs. In the case of the recovery effort in the Gulf Coast region, this disconnect is as potentially dangerous as hurricanes Katrina and Rita and subsequent mismanagement of the humanitarian crises that emerged.

On Monday, November 6, Rev. Tyrone Edwards of the Zion Travelers Cooperative in Phoenix, Plaquemines Parish, La., visited UUSC. Rev. Edwards has headed up an amazing effort in his community to rebuild many of the houses destroyed by the hurricanes.

Many of the citizens of Plaquemines Parish, especially the elderly, owned their houses outright before the disaster. After the disaster, however, they were told that to afford to rebuild their homes they would need to take out mortgages on top of their relief aid. This might make sense for a middle-aged person, but is potentially devastating for a retiree.

Enter Rev. Edwards and his unstoppable mind and spirit. Through creative thinking, community partnerships, and some very hard work, Rev. Edwards' group has figured out how to rebuild these houses at a fraction of the cost estimated by FEMA, without cutting corners on quality. Word quickly spread of this parish that was trying to rebuild their homes, and other groups began to call and ask what they could do to help.

And this simple question, "What do you need?" is what Rev. Edwards says made all the difference. Many well-meaning Americans gave generously in the days, weeks, and months after the hurricanes hit. One of the problems was that they gave what they assumed was needed, and many of the real needs went unmet.

This was a subject that Rev. Edwards spoke about at great length yesterday, you can watch a video of his response, which was both humorous and educational.

On Thanksgiving 2005, three months before FEMA made it into Plaquemines Parish, Rev. Edwards was there assesing the situation. The short of it was, they had a great need for heavy equipment to remove the fallen trees, broken structures, and boats that littered the landscape. The problem was they were inundated with offers of truckloads of food and clothes at a point when they had less than ten people on the ground in the parish. What they needed to do was give the people something to come back to. They needed homes. They needed sheetrock, not more food and books -- not yet, at least.

Fast forward to November 2006, just 11 short and busy months for Rev. Edwards and his community. Rev. Edwards announced to us yesterday that thanks to groups like UUSC that provided the aid they actually needed, they now have the first six foundations laid. By Thanksgiving, will have the first 6 houses framed. This is real, inspiring progress in a place that just a year ago had a much higher population of donated stuffed animals than actual people.