Prior to my engagement in episcopal community services, I was aware that there are people in different parts of the world dying of starvation, but I had not witnessed it. I have been engaging in a project involved with feeding the homeless and providing them with support to alleviate their conditions of poverty. My primary role in the project is to prepare the cutleries used in the course. I also help in serving food for the homeless people who attend our charity campaigns.
At the beginning of the project, I was afraid of the homeless people who came to share the free meals because some of them were dirty and they looked dangerous. My stereotypical sentiments had been propagated from the media, which portrays the homeless street dwellers as dangerous criminals who cannot be trusted. This attitude toward the homeless people was white washed when I engaged in a conversation with Mr. Green, a homeless man who has lived on the streets for 3 years.
The experience has made me realize that the homeless people in the streets are normal people who deserve access to the basic human needs. Mr. Green has a dream that one day he will acquire a good job, buy a house, and live happily with his future family. The Episcopal community service project has changed my attitude toward the street dwellers, and I believe that everyone should be acquainted with the challenges that homeless people face on a daily basis. I sympathize with the homeless people we serve because we only feed them on Thursdays, which means they do not get food security for the rest of the week.
According to the Catholic social teachings, every individual in the community has the obligation to help the poor and oppressed members of the society to liberate themselves from the daily challenges. Justice and dignity of all humans should prevail (Brigham 43). One of the themes of the religious teachings with relation to humans is the provision of rights to the people. The right to life for the homeless is greatly threatened when they live in the cold and spend several days without food. It is the obligation of the community to develop the appropriate mechanisms to help these people.
Our project is one of the few courses that have been developed to reach out to the poor and homeless people in the community, but it barely provides enough food for the people who show up. The society should be compelled to take part in the development of community projects that help the poor and the homeless to enjoy their right to life. The challenges being faced by the poor and homeless people in the society are the measure of the basic moral score of the society.
This score is quite low when the current living conditions of the homeless people in the society are considered. The rich people in the society should be in the limelight of the development of community projects to bring justice to the poor, and protect their dignity as humans (Brigham 45). Everybody in the community has something to offer, and the poor and homeless are always appreciative of the small gestures shown by their wealthier counterparts. Some of the poor members of the society only need empowerment to get back on their feet; hence, members of the community should also provide employment opportunities for the homeless so that they can become independent citizens.
Works Cited
Brigham, Erin, M. See, Judge, Act: Catholic Social Teaching and Service Learning. Minnesota: St. Mary’s Press, 2013. Print.