Volunteer Placement at Open Hand,

¶ … volunteer placement at Open Hand, I have seen the harsh reality of living below the poverty line. So far, I have learned that simple things like eating a healthy, well-cooked meal are things that many of us often take for granted. Before I came to Open Hand I had no idea that poverty was this apparent in the United States. Naively, I supposed that this kind of extreme poverty only existed in third world slums such as Indonesia or South America. I was not expecting to find that many still cannot afford to feed themselves on a daily basis even here in America. My volunteer placement thus far has been an eye-opening experience.

To me, poverty in the United States was not something I knew a great deal about. Yet, it is apparent in our everyday life whether we choose to see it or not. During the course of my placement with Project Open Hand, my view of the social inequality in the United States has changed. As I learned more through my interaction with an increasing amount of people who are struggling to live a normal life on little or no income, I came to realize how little I know about the poverty situation.

Today there are over 17 million people living in extreme poverty in the United States, which is the highest amount of people living below the poverty line since 1975 ("Poverty USA"). This challenged my assumptions about poverty in the U.S. because that is an astounding fact considering we are one of the richest countries in the world.

That research came from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Catholic Campaign for Human Development (USCCB CCHD). Much like Project Open Hand, CCHD aims to improve this situation. Although CCHD is a faith-based organization, it strives to help improve the situations of people in need regardless of religious beliefs. This is also similar to Project Open Hand whose doors are always open to the very sick, the very poor and the infirm without consideration of their backgrounds.

This is in keeping with the teachings of the Catholic Church and its preferential treatment of the vulnerable and poverty stricken. The Catechism of the Catholic Church has a discussion of a "Love for the Poor," stating "those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church" ("Article 7: The Seventh Commandment, VI. Love for the Poor, 2448"). With these words and teachings of the Church, I took it as my duty to help those in need, realizing that, although we may be classed as a rich country, we still have the same social problems as many so-called third world countries.

Through the past 20 hours of service at Project Open Hand, I have learned a great deal about poverty in the country in which I live and have seen the relevance of the teachings of the Catholic Church. Although I myself was greatly surprised by how little I knew about the poverty situation in the United States, there is a great deal of awareness of this crisis in such places as Project Open Hand. It is through the work being done at Project Open Hand that I see the Church's teachings about the preferential treatment of the poor and vulnerable become a reality. This treatment for the poor is not contingent on the needy individual's religious beliefs, but is based on Catholic values.