Baobob is a tremendous social venture. The program is to get 6-8th graders in New Orleans to venture out of their comfort zone. What happens is they raise money to take trips outside of New Orleans and even the U.S. to broaden their horizons and overcome fears, experience living in a different culture, and dealing with language barriers to make them better educated people. Lisa Giarratano was the interviewee for Baobob. She told us many amazing things about Baobob, but two stories really stuck out at me.
First is the first trip they took with 8 students. They went to the Dominican Republic and were housed with families there. The adults were in one house and the kids were in another, so the kids had to work together and even work individually to overcome barriers like the Dominican food style, their language, how they live within their households. It was a terrifying, but extremely beneficial experience for these kids. Lisa said they started in the city to get them comfortable and then moved into the mountains. This absolutely scared the kids, especially when they went to a cave to climb down and explore. After the initial shock the students took advantage of their opportunity and had a blast! The last thing about this story Lisa said was that the students changed from day one leaving the trip to when they came home in how they acted. (In a positive way!)
The second story is where the name Baobob came from. Baobob is an African tree that the roots grow as long as its branches do. Which represents that there is an equality in what you give to yourself and what you give to the world. This program does just that to the fullest capacity. Making the name Baobob a perfect fit!
This program is something they want to keep locally in New Orleans as of right now. Baobob is getting kids to other countries, but also to help out in their own community. This is the part that really will help these students in the long run. Baobob is taking kids that if not lead in a positive direction could end up dealing drugs, being alcoholics, becoming a member of a gang. Baobob is changing childrens lives and it can only go up from here! Posted by Chad
First is the first trip they took with 8 students. They went to the Dominican Republic and were housed with families there. The adults were in one house and the kids were in another, so the kids had to work together and even work individually to overcome barriers like the Dominican food style, their language, how they live within their households. It was a terrifying, but extremely beneficial experience for these kids. Lisa said they started in the city to get them comfortable and then moved into the mountains. This absolutely scared the kids, especially when they went to a cave to climb down and explore. After the initial shock the students took advantage of their opportunity and had a blast! The last thing about this story Lisa said was that the students changed from day one leaving the trip to when they came home in how they acted. (In a positive way!)
The second story is where the name Baobob came from. Baobob is an African tree that the roots grow as long as its branches do. Which represents that there is an equality in what you give to yourself and what you give to the world. This program does just that to the fullest capacity. Making the name Baobob a perfect fit!
This program is something they want to keep locally in New Orleans as of right now. Baobob is getting kids to other countries, but also to help out in their own community. This is the part that really will help these students in the long run. Baobob is taking kids that if not lead in a positive direction could end up dealing drugs, being alcoholics, becoming a member of a gang. Baobob is changing childrens lives and it can only go up from here! Posted by Chad
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