The Uncultured Project

It's been a while since I have been able to post something here at Rock For Hunger. Today something inspired me to get back in the spirit. It's not that I am not inspired but sometimes days get busy and we all know the man upstairs isn't planning on making more hours in the day anytime soon. So without further ado, what is the Uncultured Project?

The Uncultured Project is the vision and commitment of a 26 year old kid at heart named Shawn. He is not a charity or part of a charity, rather a soul that wanted to help the world and see if one man (and some help from his family) can help to change the world. So he jumped ship to Bangledesh and has been there for some time and the results have been amazing.

The story that got to me was that of a family of 3 and the transformation he made for their lives in only5 months.


Before:

5 Months Later.

This is what Shawn had to say:

What’s Different?

• Clothes - no more walking around shiverring and shirtless! (clothes provided by my aunt)
• Schooling - the eldest son just graduated from Grade One! (school costs paid for by my mom, dad, and I)
• No more insects and insect-bites! The PermaNet I donated to them got rid of the cockroaches that used to crawl around their bed at night. It’s also protected them from being feasted upon by mosquitoes while they slept. (PermaNet donated to this project courtesy of Vestergaard Frandsen - they rock)
• Can Study in the Dark - that windup flashlight I gave them still works and the eldest son uses it to study. My dad was worried that a five dollar camping flashlight from Wal-Mart wouldn’t be useful as long-term light source in the third world. Five months on, it’s still going on strong. LEDs and hand-cranked rechargable batteries rule!
• Hungry no more! Malnutrition is a big problem here. And, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t eating meals. Rather, it means that people aren’t eating a lot of the proper stuff - because they can’t afford it. Protein and iron deficieines are all too common here. I found out that most of the poorer locals can’t afford beef or other foods high in protein. There are apparently two kinds of salt sold here. The “poor mans” salt is basically old and low in iron. The good stuff - the kind most reading this have on their dinner tables - is high in iron. Not only did we give them money for food but also, whenever my grandmother is in town, she invites them over for a meal full of all the stuff they normally can’t afford like beef and the “good” kind of salt. I was able to share such a meal with them earlier today.

It is amazing what one can do with a little drive and ambition to change the world. Every time Rock For Hunger, Food Not Bombs and other organizations go out and feed the homeless, talk to them and get to know them, they are getting one step closer to fixing the problem.

By creating a conversation we can start to see what tasks can be done to help their transformation back into society as you and me view it. By helping an individual with a resume, getting identification, transportation to a job fair, setting up an email account and finding low income housing are all tasks that anyone can do. Lend a hand. You do not need to go to Bengledesh to make a difference (although I think that is super cool and I would jump at the chance to join Shawn). You can make a difference in your backyard by taking a stance, and invoking change in someone's life.

Check out Uncultured on YouTube, Flickr and on Shawn's blog.

-Greg Rollett
(Greg is the Marketing and Comunications Director at Rock For Hunger and has recently launched his own Music Marketing Firm, Rollett Marketing in Downtown Orlando.)