After the devastating earthquake in Haiti on Jan. 12, the world made efforts to come together to help those in desperate need. So did the Five Colleges.
Every week, representatives from Mount Holyoke, Hampshire, Smith, Amherst and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst come together to discuss and plan events in order to aid in the relief and rebuilding of Haiti. The Haitian American Student Association at UMass hosts these meetings weekly. However, each College is making an effort on their own as well.
Creating Awareness and Unity for Social Equality (CAUSE) and the Mount Holyoke African and Caribbean Students Association (MHACASA) held Ice Capella on Jan. 29 in order to raise funds for Partners in Health (PIH) and Global Fund for Women (GFW).
PIH has a history of disaster relief programs and their largest program is in Haiti. GFW is a program in Haiti that trains women to help rebuild their community. This organization is run and founded by Kavita Ramdas ’83.
“Getting money there is the immediate need,” said CAUSE board member Maria Diaz ’10. Maria, along with fellow CAUSE board member Leah Dion ’10, has been organizing and planning the Haiti relief efforts for this spring 2010 semester. Working with MHACASA, the two orgs on campus have worked together to plan for fundraising events and have put donation boxes all over campus. “As the semester goes on we will focus more on rebuilding but right now we need relief because there are still people without clothes, food, shelter,” said Diaz.
At Hampshire, a group of students and faculty members are working together with the Community Advocacy Department to plan various events.
“We will be having a series of fundraisers, educational events, and working on relationship building between our institution and Haitian educational institutions,” said Liza Neal, Hampshire’s director of spiritual life.
Hampshire will also work to collect items for hygiene, for babies’ needs and emergency kits.
The first event Hampshire hosted in order to raise funds for Haiti was a dance party fundraiser that took place on Friday, Jan. 29.
The proceeds went to Doctors Without Borders and more events are to come. Hampshire is also hosting weekly meditations focused on Haiti.
At Amherst, students, administrators and staff members are collaborating to determine how they can effectively and directly contribute to the efforts of rebuilding Haiti.
Amherst has begun a wristband campaign on campus. They have ordered and will sell wristbands that are red and blue and have “Vive Haiti” on them. They are selling them for five dollars each. Amherst is running this campaign until the end of February in order to raise as much money as possible. The goal of this campaign is that every student, faculty and staff member will wear a wristband by the end of the campaign.
Elias Alba Milki, who is involved in most of the planning for Haiti relief efforts at Amherst, said that Amherst is involved in an ongoing process of picking organizations to send funds.
Records indicate that 380,000 orphaned children now live in Haiti. Over 150,000 have been counted dead in Port-au-Prince alone.
But the rest of the story is that Haiti is the poorest nation in the western Hemisphere, with 80 percent living below the poverty level. The colleges’ participation in these aid efforts reflect the need for sustained support.
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