On April 16th, Greater Triangle branch volunteers Yuyang Luo and Alex Zhang helped their neighbor Lydia pack donations. Growing up in Kenya, Lydia experienced all sorts of struggles due to poverty. After she immigrated to the United States, poverty in Kenya still constantly came to her mind. She worried about people there. Lydia decided to contribute things like daily supplies and clothes to them. She also started fundraisers to gather more things for donations. All of the donations were sent to poverty stricken areas in Kenya. However, Lydia’s back was injured about half a year ago. Handling donations became very difficult for her. After learning about Lydia’s situation, Yuyang and Alex wanted to visit Lydia and help her pack the donations. At 9AM, the volunteers arrived at Lydia’s house. Lydia was very welcoming and happy because of the visitors. They helped to carry five suitcases containing the donations to the deck. There they worked to pack everything into a cardboard box that is big enough to fit two people. Under Lydia’s instructions, they first expanded the box to three-dimensional form from a flattened one. Then they taped the box’s edges with tape to ensure the box would not break. The bottom and the walls of the box got covered with quilts (to protect fragile objects) and waterproof fabric (since the donations will be sent via waterway). They opened the suitcases and took out everything inside. They put the donations into different boxes by categories. The donations were as compressed as possible. Many layers of waterproof fabric were added to the inside. Little by little, the donations filled up the box after four hours. To wrap up, the box was covered up in waterproof tape. This took another hour. During the taping, the volunteers taught Lydia some Mandarin greetings. In return, Lydia taught them many Swahili words. Unexpectedly, it started to rain. The volunteers helped to move all of the suitcases and the big box inside. Lydia and her friend thanked the volunteers. We were touched by Lydia’s kindness and we hope to help her more in the future.
participant：
Alex Zhang 6hrs (building connections before and after, labor)
YuyangLuo 6hrs(labor and manuscript)