Friendship House: The Harsh Reality of Poverty

Friendship House is the amazing organization that I and three other BHLP students were assigned to. This organization is dedicated to assisting families facing homelessness and poverty in Delaware by providing them resources to get by one day at a time. 

In light of the 2019-2020 COVID Pandemic, the international economy took a major hit. America's already fragile economic state had further diminished, harming families that were less fortunate. As a result of the pandemic, many school children in the Red Clay Consolidated School District could not afford to buy or maintain school uniforms. That means small children, whose only job at this point in time is to go to school and learn to be well-functioning adults, were facing the reality of having to go to school without the proper clothes to keep them comfortable enough to focus. Our team's job was to assist Friendship House to organize a clothing drive to (a) further spread the organization's mission statewide and (b) ensure less kids went to school too uncomfortable to learn.

Before becoming engrossed in community involvement via the BHLP, I knew that poverty was a major problem in the country. However, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a home where I didn't have to worry about where my next meal was coming from, let alone if I'd have a roof over my head. Participating in this project opened my eyes to not only show how hard people have it, but how many struggle. Some of the schools my group analyzed demonstrated that 100% of the student population required some sort of financial assistance. It just goes to show how detrimental the COVID-19 pandemic was on everything, including the children who will one day lead the world themselves.