All Hands & Hearts

Why did you choose this program?

I just finished 2 disaster response or All Hands and Hearts DARTS, in Kentucky floods and Missouri tornado response. I wanted to do something to help my home after the wildfires in LA. Having the chance to help my community, my home, it's some of the most fulfilling work I've ever done.

What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?

They assisted in providing help with pre-arrival online training. The staff are incredibly helpful, explaining and being understanding, coordinating how you can get to the base. Which is provided for free. Food on work days is provided. They will tell you how to get to base, but the cost of getting their is usually on you. They have a sponsorship program you can apply for that'll cover the airfare be aware its competitive and hard to get. Overall, the staff are incredibly helpful.

What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?

You live and work with the same group of people, which is fun, you bond make a lot of friends. But harder to have alone time. So when you want time to be by yourself, take it. As fast as you bond and make friends, you all leave eventually. It's a revolving door of people,e you bond with them. And you get to meet a lot of new people. But making friends and losing them is by far the hardest thing about this program.

What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?

Monday-Friday, waking up 6 am, coffee/ tea/ breakfast, get dressed etc load the pick up trucks, leave by 7 am to site usually 45min-1hr drive unload equipment, stretch circle, get PPE on start work, usually 9-10:30 1st break, 10-20min depending how hot it is, then work until lunch around 11or 12 last 45min to an hour, either eat on site or drive somewhere to eat Work until 2:30, start cleaning up decontamination PPE and equipment, and loading it into the bins, then to the trucks drive back to base Get their 4 pm 1hr 15 min until meeting at 5:15, lasts 15 minutes, then either dinner after or soon after. Curfew and quiet hrs 9 pm.

Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?

That I wouldn't enjoy it, I wouldn't make friends, and that this was too good to be true. I joined it's a bit overwhelming the 1st few days to a week. After that 1st hurdle, it gets a whole lot easier and you meet and make friends. It's normal to be anxious, but ask questions to the staff before you arrive, make sure that you mentally prepare for meeting friends and losing them just as fast. Take it easy on yourself, it's a new environment. But it's well worth it.

Is there anything I would've done differently?

I wouldn't have worried as much, enjoyed my friends a bit more by talking to them more, doing more social activities/setting up more activities. Ask questions even if they're stupid. And definitely get out of my head a bit more and enjoy their company. You won't see them for a while, so enjoy it as much as you can. But don't force it. Friendships are wonderful but require equal desire for it.

I volunteered with All Hands for 16 months in Indonesia and Haiti before becoming staff. Like all of our volunteers, I was driven to help those who need support following the impact of a natural disaster

As with a large number of our alumni I signed up for just a couple of weeks but the work was so meaningful, my fellow volunteers so inspirational and the communities so welcoming I found I didn't want to leave. In the last five years I have now been to 17 projects, and a part of many more from my desk at home, and seeing communities being supported on the road to recovery is as satisfying as it was my first week on the ground as a volunteer.

As a disaster response organization it is impossible for us to predict where and when our next project will be. We have cleaned up after floods, rebuilt after typhoons, cleared debris after tornados and shoveled snow after the historical snowstorms that hit the Boston area this year.

If local mechanisms, agencies and individuals are overwhelmed by the scale of the damage All Hands will look at ways that volunteers can plug in and fill the gaps, whether this mean winterizing homes in Colorado or building boats in Samar. We're always looking for unmet needs in the communities we serve and how we can use the motivation and dedication of our volunteers to address them.