By Eileen Scott, Senior Writer
REACHING BEYOND THE YARD Harvard Students Serve with Boston Project Ministries
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Students with Harvard College Faith and Action—a leadership HARVARD development ministry resourced and supported by Christian Union—are reaching out to Harvard’s neighbors and striving to make a positive impact upon urban and lower-income communities. In November, students with the social action team of Harvard College Faith and Action (HCFA) conducted surveys for the Millennium 10 Initiative, a communityplanning outreach that will help define the future of the greater Codman Square and Four Corners neighborhoods of Boston. The Millennium 10 Initiative (M10) is facilitated by The Boston Project (www.tbpm.org), an urban renewal ministry. M10 seeks to identify key issues impacting the local communities and develop an action agenda that will help residents achieve economic mobility. Ujunwa Anakwenze ’13 helped lead the efforts among HCFA’s social action team, which dubbed the effort, “Beyond the Yard.” “It alludes to the fact that we would be traveling beyond Harvard Yard,” she said. Anakwenze and a small group of HCFA students rode 45 minutes by subway to the Codman Square and Four Corners communities to knock on doors and ask residents to complete surveys. Both Codman Square and Four Corners are predominantly low-income, African-American neighborhoods. They are also generally perceived as violent neighborhoods. And yet, Anakwenze was not afraid to walk through the streets and knock on random doors, partly because she spent a portion of her summer living there as part of a local missions trip. “I’m not easily frightened,” said Anakwenze. “I have a heart for the neighborhood and working with the community. When it comes down to it, we were
ringing doorbells just like the ones in my neighborhood. It’s just that the people behind the doors had less money and endured the effects of living in a poor neighborhood.”
dents of the neighborhoods to share their views about the community. Some people didn’t answer their doors, while some couldn’t respond because they didn’t speak English. Others called out from behind closed doors that they weren’t interested. But some residents took the time to respond and help to address the challenges their communities face. Interestingly, Anakwenze said that some people didn’t even know how to identify the problems. One woman she surveyed deferred to her for the answers. “Do you think this is a problem?” she asked. Despite the challenges, apathy, and rejection by some, Anakwenze remained steadfast in her commitment to the project and the fruit it will bear. “When I saw the work The Boston Project was doing and how committed they are to seeking God and his will in what they are doing, I wanted to participate,” she said. As a leader with the social action team of HCFA, Anakwenze also wants to help encourage Ujunwa Anakwenze ’13 led members of members to come together as a Harvard College Faith and Action’s Social ministry and help meet needs Action Team when the leadership development within the community. ministry assisted Boston Project Ministries “It’s my desire for our organizaduring the fall semester. tion to be committed to serving and doing so in a way that is Anakwenze said serving beyond fear is meaningful and meeting needs,” she said. part of Christian service. “I think that We aren’t exempt from serving Boston’s whenever we are going out into the comcommunities just because we are Harvard munity to serve and we’re doing it with students. We are all human beings, all the right motivations, there is no reason created in the image of God. If there is a to fear,” she explained. need outside of campus, then we go outThe junior had no fear of asking resiside of campus.” ■
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