Volunteering at homeless center sparks ideas for visiting African leaders

–July 29, 2016

Two dozen visiting African leaders this month learned about sustainable methods for serving the homeless population. They toured and volunteered at the Watkins location of Saint Vincent de Paul, a homeless services center near Seventh Avenue and Interstate 17 in south Phoenix.

The African leaders are part of a U.S. State Department initiative that gives young professionals from sub-Saharan Africa the knowledge and leadership skills to help them improve conditions in their home countries.

Called the Mandela Washington Fellowship, the program is hosted by the ASU Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions in downtown Phoenix.

The fellowship offers leadership training classes, opportunities to network with professionals, and continued support for professional development when the Fellows return home.

ASU is hosting two student cohorts: One for those who work in public management and another for professionals interested in developing civic leadership skills. 

Earlier in the month, the Fellows visited one of many Phoenix St. Vincent de Paul facilities that offer meals, showers and clothes for people who are homeless. This location grows its own food on a small urban farm.

The center employs a little over 200 people. Because of that, volunteer coordinator Michele Larson said St. Vincent de Paul relies heavily on volunteer work.

The Fellows did various jobs from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon when they took a tour of the center’s facilities.

“The Fellows covered a lot of ground,” says Larson, who described the value of the work they did as “immeasurable.”

Fellows sorted donated food in the center’s food warehouse, folded clothes and prepared meals in the kitchen to serve the center’s homeless guests.

Some of the Fellows said what they learned during the experience benefitted the work they are doing in their home countries.

Mandela Washington Fellow Fatma Abdalla said there are not many volunteer centers in Kenya that have a sustainable flow of donations and volunteers like St. Vincent de Paul does.

“When you are helping the homeless, you don’t want it to go on for just a day,” said Abdalla, a human resources advisor for the Lamu County Government in Kenya. “You want it to be ongoing, something that can go on forever.”

Abdalla believes that homeless shelters in her country can become a reliable source of services and aid for people who are in need of them.

“It gives hope to the homeless,” she said, “so they know every time they go to the center that they will be able to receive something to improve their situation.” 

Fellow Lea Razanamaria volunteered with Abdalla in the center's community garden to clear away dead plants, harvest tomatoes and cabbage, and learn how its plants were grown. She said the experience taught her something she could bring back to her country as well.

Razanamaria is an environment officer in the Ministry of Tourism in Madagascar, and she said one thing she learned about growing food from this volunteer experience is how to improve farming by using biological methods that are more natural than those involving genetic modification.

Around 80-percent of workers in Madagascar are involved in farming and could benefit from knowing these methods, she said.

Razanamaria is also the team leader of the Actions for the Development of Madagascar, a grassroots organization whose focuses include the education improvement for Madagascar’s youth.

One of the things that stood out to her was the number of middle and high school students volunteering at the center.

From what she saw during this experience, Razanamaria plans to help young people in Madagascar discover the importance of giving to and caring for others.