Kevin Woods

This is my second time coming to Louisiana. Last year I went with the Habitat group that went to Slidell, where we helped build houses for people in the community. It was a great experience – helping others that were always so friendly and eating all the local food, which was amazing, so I decided to come back this year.

We stayed in The Village this time, which is a community center in the Lower Ninth Ward that is still being put together to one day become a place where children can come to play. We spent days working there, making it safe, cleaning up, and putting up a roof. We also spent a day at a ranch that, like The Village, was in the progress of establishing a fun and safe environment for children in the area. While there, we got to ride horses and drive tractors and have fun – we played hard but we worked harder. Children would come and go during the day to ride the horses in the rodeo and hang out around the ranch. It was great to see this alternative offered to them.

The Lower Ninth Ward has one of the highest crime rates in the country and creating these new centers will hopefully open a new environment in the community that will take kids off the street and out of the penitentiary system.

For more information about the Lower Ninth Ward Village please visit their website here and if you would like to make a donation, you can do that here.