The Role of Community Service During a Global Pandemic
Written by Chloe Duckworth for thepowerofreadingandlearning.blogspot
Chloe Duckworth is a first year computational neuroscience major at the University of Southern California. She is currently starting a USC chapter of a non-profit organization called Foundation for the International Medical Relief of Children, focused on helping children in third-world countries receive basic medical care and supplies.
During this global pandemic, I’ve been taking some time to be grateful. We live in a world that largely defines purpose as productivity, human connection as transactional, and success as capital. We’ve come to define our existence by our money-making efficiency, and when the economy shuts down, we felt our lives come to a halt. And for good reason, this pandemic has had a profound impact—physically, mentally, financially. I’ve been hearing lots of talk about when the world will “go back to normal”. I don’t have that answer, and I’m not convinced our leaders do either.
People are hungry, tired, scared, traumatized.
People are caught in a cycle of needing food to live and work for food but no work for living. It’s hard to wake up in the morning with no job to do when the working class has done that every day for the majority of their lives. It’s harder to wake up in the morning with a job to do when it could cost you your life.
In a climate surrounded by atrocities, it’s easy to feel hopeless about this situation. But right now, I choose to have profound hope in these pockets of compassion I’m finding in the world. It seems in our hiatus some of us have learned to be kinder, slower, and more intentional in our interaction because we now appreciate how precious it is.
For the past few months, a group of fellow USC students and I have been reaching out to our community at USC and in LA to help fellow community members struggling due to COVID-19 shutdowns. Through crowdsourcing resources, we were able to provide struggling people with food, housing, and other support tailored to their unique situation. We received overwhelming amounts of support from people in the community, far greater than any response I’ve received in my past service projects.
What I’ve learned is that when people launch into disaster mode, there are two responses that typically result. There are the people that rush to the store and buy all of the toilet paper and bulk items in sight, only to price gouge them on Amazon. But there are also people that reach out a helping hand (from a comfortable 6 feet distance) to their friend in need, sew masks for their local hospital, buy groceries for their elderly neighbors. Despite our collective trauma, the way ordinary citizens are organizing to help humanity is truly inspiring. It is these people that are keeping our community strong during disaster, and I suspect that they are also the people that help prevent chaos in their everyday lives, in ways that we usually struggle to recognize and fully appreciate.
Before this outbreak, people seldom considered grocery clerks essential, much less heroes. Without these people, our society wouldn’t be functioning to the degree it is right now, but it’s important to recognize that it never would have. We have always needed grocery clerks, trash collectors, janitors, and all other service workers. These people have taken the brunt of our baggage as a society—both literally and figuratively—and it’s high time we recognize their importance, along with all of the other heroes this time has highlighted, that have existed in the shadows all along. And when we all “go back to normal” I sincerely hope that the heroes of this pandemic are remembered as the people that have played integral roles in society far before this pandemic occurred. I also hope that these heroes continue inspire all of us to be better, kinder, and give back to the community that supports us.
Chloe Duckworth is a first year computational neuroscience major at the University of Southern California. She is currently starting a USC chapter of a non-profit organization called Foundation for the International Medical Relief of Children, focused on helping children in third-world countries receive basic medical care and supplies.
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| Community. via Shutterstock |
During this global pandemic, I’ve been taking some time to be grateful. We live in a world that largely defines purpose as productivity, human connection as transactional, and success as capital. We’ve come to define our existence by our money-making efficiency, and when the economy shuts down, we felt our lives come to a halt. And for good reason, this pandemic has had a profound impact—physically, mentally, financially. I’ve been hearing lots of talk about when the world will “go back to normal”. I don’t have that answer, and I’m not convinced our leaders do either.
People are hungry, tired, scared, traumatized.
 |
| Picture by Wokandapix Via Pixabay |
In a climate surrounded by atrocities, it’s easy to feel hopeless about this situation. But right now, I choose to have profound hope in these pockets of compassion I’m finding in the world. It seems in our hiatus some of us have learned to be kinder, slower, and more intentional in our interaction because we now appreciate how precious it is.
For the past few months, a group of fellow USC students and I have been reaching out to our community at USC and in LA to help fellow community members struggling due to COVID-19 shutdowns. Through crowdsourcing resources, we were able to provide struggling people with food, housing, and other support tailored to their unique situation. We received overwhelming amounts of support from people in the community, far greater than any response I’ve received in my past service projects.
 |
| Giving back. Via Shutterstock |
What I’ve learned is that when people launch into disaster mode, there are two responses that typically result. There are the people that rush to the store and buy all of the toilet paper and bulk items in sight, only to price gouge them on Amazon. But there are also people that reach out a helping hand (from a comfortable 6 feet distance) to their friend in need, sew masks for their local hospital, buy groceries for their elderly neighbors. Despite our collective trauma, the way ordinary citizens are organizing to help humanity is truly inspiring. It is these people that are keeping our community strong during disaster, and I suspect that they are also the people that help prevent chaos in their everyday lives, in ways that we usually struggle to recognize and fully appreciate.
Before this outbreak, people seldom considered grocery clerks essential, much less heroes. Without these people, our society wouldn’t be functioning to the degree it is right now, but it’s important to recognize that it never would have. We have always needed grocery clerks, trash collectors, janitors, and all other service workers. These people have taken the brunt of our baggage as a society—both literally and figuratively—and it’s high time we recognize their importance, along with all of the other heroes this time has highlighted, that have existed in the shadows all along. And when we all “go back to normal” I sincerely hope that the heroes of this pandemic are remembered as the people that have played integral roles in society far before this pandemic occurred. I also hope that these heroes continue inspire all of us to be better, kinder, and give back to the community that supports us.
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| Alexas Fotos via Pixabay |
