Hurricane Katrina

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Hurricane Katrina
Service Learning for Civic Engagement School
Curiculum

• Developed by Los Angeles County Service Learning
  Coach
• Matt Oppenheim
• In Partnership with
• AMURT The Ananda Marga
• Universal Relief Team

• .

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Goals Investigate the ecological, social,
economic, and political issues impacting
victims. Dialogue with a disaster relief team
director from AMURT The Ananda Marga Universal
Relief Team -Organize a project that has the
greatest value. Evaluate the experience -
What have you learned? Learn more about
AMURT at the end of this presentation
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• Study Guide
• This curriculum unit is a model of Service
  Learning
• A teaching and learning approach that
  integrates community service with academic study.
  
• That enriches learning, teaches civic
  responsibility, and strengthens communities,
  while
• engaging students in reflection upon what was
  experienced, how the community was benefited, and
  what was learned
• Adapted from the National Commission on Service
  Learning Definition

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This picture shows an AMURT house building
project with victims of the Bando Ache
Tsunami. This PowerPoint Presentation posses
ten critical questions for students to research
and take informed action. At the end of the
presentation is a list of study resources.
There is also a Teachers guide suggesting
activities for each slide. Your feedback is
critical! Email Matt Oppenheim at
oppenm_at_earthlink.net.
No act of kindness, however small, is wasted."
Aesop
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• List Ten Questions to Explore
• 1. What do we already know about Katrina and how
  it has effected the lives of people and the
  environment of the Gulf Coast states? Describe a
  day in the life of a poor family in the disaster
  areas.

2. How has Katrina affected you? Do you have
friends or relatives that live in the disaster
area? What have they told you about their
experience.
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• List Ten Questions to Explore
• 1. What do we already know about Katrina and how
  it has effected the lives of people and the
  environment of the Gulf Coast states? Describe a
  day in the life of a poor family in the disaster
  areas.

2. How has Katrina affected you? Do you have
friends or relatives that live in the disaster
area? What have they told you about their
experience.
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• 3. What is being done now to help victims? How
  effective are current services at meeting the
  survival needs of victims?

4. How are (a) environmental issues, (b)
political economic issues,(c) disaster
management and (d) ethnicity and income issues
impacting the victims?
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5. How does history help us understand what will
happen from the impacts of Katrina in the coming
years. . . The Fatal Flood of 1927
Political Impacts Reports on the poor situation
in the refugee camps were kept out of the media
at the request of Herbert Hoover, with the
promise of further reforms for blacks after the
presidential election. When he failed to keep the
promise, Moton and other influential
African-Americans helped to shift the allegiance
of black Americans from the Republican party to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the
Democrats. From http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr
eat_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927
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More about the Fatal Flood of 1927 In the
spring of 1927, the Mississippi River went on a
rampage from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans,
killing a thousand people and leaving a million
homeless. Efforts to contain the river pitted the
majority black population against aristocratic
plantation families. African American refugees
were herded into camps guarded by the National
Guard. The guards kept African American
sharecroppers from fleeing and finding work
elsewhere.
Blues singer Mai Cramer Many blues artists were
inspired to write songs about the disaster and
describe the experience of being in a flood.
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• 6. How can we support the most effective
  service?
• What are the best short-term and long term
  solutions?

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7. Contact an AMURT Disaster Relief Director
Ask Questions to find out more about the
situation and how to take the most effective
action
By email, contact jclark_at_amurt.net and they
will connect you with a dsiaster relief team
leader at relief sites
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What Action Plan to Choose?
8. Decide on a project in consultation with the
relief organization. Make a plan, form teams,
take action!
How will victims build a secure life?
Define Immediate needs and effective action
What are long-term solutions that build
sustainable futures?
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• 9. Implement a project with your classroom to
  raise funds or take other means of action to
  educate people, offer your services, and continue
  to communicate and work with relief and community
  development projects

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• Think about what you have learned. Have you been
  effective at investigating the disaster?
• Was your service project effective?
• What did you learn about working together?
• What skills did you use in this project? What
  did you learn about yourself?

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What do you believe will happen after the
disaster? . . . . Why? Think about government
impacts, economic impacts, cultural and ethnic
impacts, educational impacts, ecological impacts,
and social impacts
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2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
2012 2013 2014
What is the best scenario . . . . the worst
scenario, and the most realistic scenario? Build
a case for your perspective.
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AMURT Global Networkwww.amurt.org
Disaster Relief  Sustainable Development
Community Service AMURT is one of the few
voluntary organizations of Third World origin, -
founded in India in 1965. AMURT has a network of
teams in 85 countries that meet development and
disaster needs anywhere in the world. We play a
useful role in helping the poor to gain greater
control over their lives. For us, development is
human exchange people sharing wisdom, knowledge
and experience to build a better world. AMURT is
a legal nonprofit organization (501c3). It is
registered with FEMA the United Nations,
cooperates with other agencies in offering
services.
Mid-Wife training in Burkina Faso, Africa
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AMURTEL was formed in 1975 to respond to issues
faced by women and children in their struggle to
develop. AMURTEL raises the standard of health
and education of women and their children.
Programs assist women to gain self-determination
www.amurtel.org. .
The Lotus Center in Mongolia combines an
orphanage for hundreds of children with schools
and agricultural and economic development
projects.
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Website Study Resources

• AN UNNATURAL DISASTER A CRITICAL RESOURCE
  GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS
• http//www.nycore.org/curricula.html
• From the New York Collective of Radical
  Education A comprehensive investigation into the
  government mis-manageement, political motivation,
  disaster mismanagement, racial nature of the
  relief work and the issues of civil rights,
  ecological sustainability, and media manipulation
  - connected to the history of the civil rights
  movement and government treatment of minorities.
• HURRICANE KATRINA FROM WIKiPEDIA
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
• A comprehensive resource guide about the
  climatological, governmental, civil defence,
  racial, historical, disaster relief community,
  and ecological facts of the hurricane

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Additional Study Resources LSU Hurricane Katrina
Information Resources http//www.lsu.edu/faculty/m
ccarthy/katrina.htm Comprehensive guide to facts,
resources, nonprofit and government agencies and
up to date information Great Mississippi Flood
of 1927 From Wikipedia http//en.wikipedia.org/wik
i/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927 Comprehensive
facts, resources and social dynamics about the
Great Flood of 1927 Teacher's Guide Suggestions
for Active Learning The Fatal Flood of
1927 http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flood/sfeature/s
f_levee.html Comprehensive teachers guide to
curriculum units on the ecological, historical,
political, economic and racial nature of the
Flood of 1927
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Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful committed citizens can change the
world Indeed, it is the only thing that ever
has. Margaret Mead - anthropologist