BlackKoldMadina

"When Trouble the Water opened and gave us the opportunity to go to different places and do new things, we began to see the world in a different way. We began to wonder why our communities in New Orleans are suffering as they do, bound by low expectations, drug infestations, vicious cycles of ignorance and hopelessness. Scott and I were once a part of that.

When I was young, I wished there was a program available in my community to help my mother with her addiction. I wish she could have gone to a center for help, so that we could get her back from addiction. But nothing was available. We never got her back.

I know there are other kids out there wishing for help, hoping for some way to get their loved ones back in their lives, to love and to know and to protect them.

We, as the subjects of the film – we are just the faces of the people who struggled in the poorest, most underprivileged parts of the city that had been overlooked and forgotten long before Hurricane Katrina ever hit the Gulf Coast. Scott and I see the success of the film as an opportunity to draw attention to the poor living conditions, the lack of education and government neglect that have corrupted our communities. We want to be a voice for the hushed citizens. We feel that because we are ourselves from the poorest parts of the city, we can relate the needs of our neighbors to folks that really want to help.

We want to lead by example, by tackling some of the problems that hold our communities down."

- Kimberly Rivers Roberts

Kimberly founded a non-profit organization called Troubled Waters- Awakening Minds, through which she is helping residents of New Orleans recover from substance abuse and addiction and rebuild their community.

You can help save lives, heal communities and resurrect the city of New Orleans by making a tax-deductible charitable contribution to the fund today.