African American Youth are First to Respond to Disasters Across the Nation and the World
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| Recently, the Covenant with Black America had a conversation with several members of the National Association for the Prevention of Starvation, NAPS, a group that was featured in the Covenant In Action to get an update on the great work that they do. NAPS is a not for profit student volunteer organization that works to mitigate hunger, poverty, and disease, and to improve education and food security among suffering people, both nationally and internationally, regardless of race, religion, or nationality. The organization provides humanitarian aid and educational support in the areas of: emergency relief, skilled volunteers, healthcare professionals, agricultural technology, and social and spiritual comfort. The organization operates independently of all governmental, institutional, or political influences. In the summer of 2006, just about six months after the COVENANT In Action was published, a NAPS's relief team was the first to hit the ground in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita and Katrina. Young people that served in this relief effort explained that they were really drawn to people, "in some cases we were the first relief that many people saw after days of feeling stranded. Relief from the government had not arrived, people were despairing. Unfortunately, many of the African-American neighborhoods were the last to receive services." On the three year anniversary of the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Gustav, another major hurricane hit New Orleans. NAPS did not let the gulf coast residents down; they were the first relief to hit the ground once again. First response relief is no coincidence for NAPS. They pride themselves in their acquisition of a special weather tracking system that allows them to track weather patterns and make careful calculations on where to focus their efforts. A NAPS’s volunteer explains that, "in Baton Rouge, the day after Gustav hit the area, rain was pouring down and the power was still out. People were looking everywhere for help. Many people just needed something hot to eat. The very first day that we were there, we fed about 50 people, cleared debris from their homes and most of all, we comforted them." When asked what impact NAPS has had on each of the volunteers, they were filled with so much elation and gratitude that they seemed not to know where to begin their responses. Mia Pile explained that, "just being able to help people who have the same stories, challenges and struggles that we have, people that are from neighborhoods and families like our own gives you such hope that you can make a difference." This dynamic team of youth leaders also expressed great pride in the impact that their mentorship, as young people of color, has had on other youth when they encounter them in their missions. Of their many stories of triumph, is a story of two college age young men from Lake Charles LA, who were on house arrest when Hurricane Katrina hit. "After witnessing our relief efforts and interacting and talking with us, they began to want to take part in our missions. They were our ages; they looked at us and what we were doing and began to desire to help us. They realized that if we were doing it they could too." Today these two young men who are Katrina survivors, who were potentially doomed to a life of crime, are now members of NAPS and enrolled as full time students at Oakwood College on Scholarships. In 1996, the organization began its currently vibrant international mission’s efforts. They made a big push for support and took their first international relief effort to Haiti. Since that time, student volunteers whom raise their own travel fares by going door-to-door, have participated in missions all across the continent of Africa, Brazil, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Today NAPS has branches in California, Chicago, Tennessee and Massachusetts. Their international program focuses on AIDS prevention and education. In order to raise the cost of medical supplies, which they leave with the communities, volunteers canvass the community to the joyful beat of there marching band. Doctors of internal medicine also pitch in by training the students to administer low-level medical procedures such as taking blood pressure. Before journeying to far off places, NAPS establishes alliances with schools and universities with a primary focus on reaching out to people living in the most remote areas of that country. They have seen first-hand how, often, very little, if any, international NGO relief aid gets to the people far outside the cities who desperately need it. Another major component of their international mission is their language and cultural preparation. They painstakingly prepare for months, learning basic language, customs and songs (boy can they harmonize). Another very exciting component is their dedication to helping the local communities they visit, by establishing physical organizations that they help to build. They provide computers and other necessary equipment so that the community is able to continue administering the HIV/AIDS prevention, education and relief work. NAPS’s mission has at times been called on by leaders of cities. They have received numerous honorable mentions for their outstanding relief protocol. They were especially recognized for their relief efforts in the aftermath of 9/11. Where ever disaster strikes, NAPS can be counted on to extend their unique brand of compassion, skill and dedication to console the most horrific situations as they did for the families and students devastated by the mass killings at Virginia Tech in 2007. |
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 "My first encounter with NAPS says, Jonah Dalmieda, was through TV on the "3 Angels Broadcasting Network" in Minnesota. People that looked like me were doing this great work. While watching, I wondered, how is it that they are doing this and I and my friends aren’t doing anything? I wanted to help and wanted to inspire others to get involved. This work really builds your character - when you can see people in the street and actually connect with them or even help them, it makes a big difference in you." |
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 Mia Pile from Nashville, Tennessee shared that she had become a Christian and was looking for something positive to do. NAPS visited her church and showed their intro video. She was really taken by a little girl in the video whose life had been stricken by AIDS. Mia said, "I just wanted to do something to help her." Mia had already graduated from college, but still wanted to be apart of NAPS and NAPS made it possible. Mia was astounded when NAPS would go out of there way to pick her up for trainings and meetings as she lived in Tennessee at the time. "I went on my first mission to Zambia, Africa. My mission taught me that I was selfish. People were so happy and thankful and they were living with, not even, the basics. Doing for others is really contagious. Really helping somebody helps you step outside of yourself." |
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 Shannon Hatch now a junior in college first came into contact with NAPS during high school when they showed their introduction video. "I was like WOW! I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go to college, but I could not stop thinking about NAPS. When I came to Alabama, I started asking around campus about the organization and became a member. I have been so blessed to be around such positive young people who have a made up mind to do service." |
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 Brian Irby says that, "what NAPS is doing is really what the world truly needs…young and old sacrificing time for others." |
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 Carolyn Bishop expresses that, "NAPS’s greatest work is the work that it does in training people. Our main focus is to inspire others to go forward and encourage them that they don’t have to be products of their circumstances." |
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NAPS has been in existence since 1978. Its founding efforts began when Dr. Anthony Paul, currently a professor of biology was a student at Oakwood College in Huntsville Alabama. Dr. Paul and a couple of college friends took a year off school to help raise money for wells to be built in Ethiopia during the countries crisis in 1978. The powerful success of their canvassing efforts inspired them to continue on and extend their help to Black Farmers in Southern United States. Just about a decade later, Dr. Paul shared this experience with his students, and to his surprise they challenged him. They asked him, curiously, why he was not making this obviously vital and transformative experience available to them? Thus, in 1985, NAPS re- formalized its efforts and began teaching relief skills and leadership development to student volunteers on Huntsville, Alabama’s Oakwood University campus. NAPS’ carries out ongoing relief programs in seven (7) neighboring communities in the Huntsville, Alabama area in which they mentor children and provide the broader community medical relief and fresh vegetables. In their leadership development work with children, they stress the importance of respect for their parents and elders. They also provide medical relief to Latinos whom face discrimination and poor conditions working on chicken and poultry farms. To learn more about NAPS, to get involved and to make a donation, please go to their website at www.napsoc.org. |
