Tag: Lower Ninth Ward

“25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50…

Ready or not, here I come!”

Remember the game?  Hide ‘n Seek?  Well, that’s how we began the game in “the Circle,” the name for our neighborhood.  We ended the game with the chant, “Ally ally outs in free.”

There have been, and will continue to be, essays written here and elsewhere about the devastation on America’s Gulf Coast. Eloquent, heart-felt songs and words written by and about American people whose lives will never been the same after Katrina hit and the levees failed.  Lives marked today by neglect; plain and simple neglect. Some say this neglect isn’t benign- but designed.  I’m not going to delve into that subject today; I just see what I see and it isn’t good.

What I see on the Gulf Coast is just one example of the neglect that so many Americans experience here in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Our veterans, our homeless, our children– far too many Americans suffer from neglect. Sadly, there are far too few of us with the time, energy, money and inclination to put them back together.  I’m one of those strapped Americans.

But, I’ve got an extra $5. In fact, I’ve got extra $10.  And today, I know where to send it.  NENA (The Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association). If you have an extra $5, $10, $15, $20… maybe you could send it on as well.  It might buy someone a meal.  It might buy them nails to repair what’s left of their home.  It might send them hope.

And then maybe we can whisper, “Ally ally outs in free.”

And imagine the day we can yell it as loud as we did when we were kids.

Thanks.

NENA’s priority needs are:

1.) Building Materials: nails to studs to wire.

2.) Money

3.) Gift Cards: Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Win Dixie Food Stores, Dollar General, Family Dollar  

Send to:

NENA

PO Box 3920

New Orleans, Louisiana 70177

504-373-6483  

In Can You Help? NOLA’s 9th Ward Needs Us! the excellent ikrisarus starts the big challenge:

A group of bloggers over at Docudharma have been actively writing about NOLA after Hurricane Katrina and we have decided to do a week-end marathon fund-raiser for the 9th Wards’ NENA (Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association)

The Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA) was established in the aftermath of Katrina to play a lead role in rebuilding New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward.

Organized and controlled by residents of the Lower Ninth Ward, NENA addresses not only the immediate recovery needs created by the storm’s destruction, but also the institutional neglect and disinvestment that plagued the neighborhood long before Katrina. NENA works with current Lower Ninth Ward residents, displaced residents living in other parts of New Orleans, and the broader diaspora who want to return to the neighborhood.