U Weekly. Serving The Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio

Helping Haiti

An inside look from students who have been there

By Stacey Laskin

"You're not a Haiti hater," the cashier told the customer who agreed to add a dollar for the Red Cross's Haiti earthquake relief to her drink purchase at the Panera Bread on campus. "I tell all the people who don't donate that they are Haiti haters," he said.

But "Haiti haters" are far and few.

Campus and community efforts have rallied for the Caribbean country, raising thousands of dollars in support for the Haitian people.

"You even notice a lot of stuff on Facebook, and people are asking you to donate an extra dollar on campus," said Ohio State University junior Kelly Meyer.

Local musicians dedicated their talents to the cause as benefit concerts sprung up around the city. Jacob Wooten, who runs Motion Productions (an event-booking business), was appalled by the destruction he saw online in photos from Haiti.

"I was seeing all these people's lives crumbling before them. The least I could do was get more people involved in sending money. If I put an event together, I thought we could maybe get a few hundred dollars," Wooten said.

Wooten's pledged to donate 87 percent of last Friday's Ravari Room benefit concert to Haitian relief efforts through Doctors Without Borders. The event fetched $3,443.

The show featured a local band, Sleepers Awake, who is also participating in the cause. The band plans to donate some of the proceeds from their first CD, "Priests of the Fire," to the Haiti relief.

"We're really proud to get the chance to help out this way," said guitarist and OSU senior Rob Bradley. "I know it sounds cliché and stereotypical, but we are seriously proud to get this chance."

The day before, the Ohio Historical Society and CD101 hosted Columbus Hope for Haiti, which was a day-long fundraising drive-in. As posted on the group's Twitter page, nearly $155,000 was raised.

Outside of these recent efforts, some OSU professors and students reached out to Haiti long before the earthquake struck.

OSU involved, even before quake
Terri Teal Bucci, an OSU professor at the Mansfield campus, created the Haiti Empowerment Program in 2003. One mission: to transform the education system, encouraging discussion and student-teacher interactions instead of rote learning.

Bucci has since visited Haiti 15 times, joined by other OSU faculty and students. Many of the classrooms these Buckeyes worked in were in the countryside, away from Port-au-Prince where the earthquake struck.

Vanessa Dodo Seriki, who has visited Haiti twice through the program, said the earthquake has raised local awareness about Haiti.

"People are really focused on what's going on now and trying to help out any way they can. I suspect they will be more interested and willing to volunteer and help [with the Haiti Empowerment program]," Seriki said.

OSU senior Jason Johns, who participated in the program last March, said he felt "personally invested" after hearing news about the quake.

"I felt the need to defend Haiti and Haitian relief efforts to people who thought they weren't necessary," Johns said.

Johns, who traveled abroad as a videographer, said the buildings in Haiti were "definitely not to code" and that Port-au-Prince, where he first arrived in Haiti, was "busy and unorganized."

The devastation that an earthquake could do to a city barely standing on its own seemed incomprehensible to Johns.

Students' insights on Haiti's pre-quake problems
Andrew Mueller, who graduated with a Master's degree in middle-childhood education from the OSU Mansfield campus last March, visited Haiti with Bucci right after graduating.

"It's just amazing how far behind they are there compared to what we have here," Mueller said. "People don't have cars or benefits, they carry huge baskets of things on their heads. People will walk miles a day if they need something. They walk two miles to get water for their family for the day. People live in huts. They do laundry in the river. People don't have their own electricity," Mueller added.

And this was before the earthquake.

"I wish we could just get up and go down there," Mueller said. "But there is a point where you just get in the way."

Plus, as Bucci said, there is a safety concern.

A trip was planned for the first week in March, yet Bucci doubted if the country will be "ready." She acknowledged that help was needed more than ever, and that faculty will keep their plans to go if there is a place to stay.

Students, however, Bucci added, will not be going this year because of Haiti's lack of stability.

"If you look at the big picture about what needs to be done in a country like Haiti, you will be completely overwhelmed," said Bucci.

Haiti's universities were mostly housed in Port-au-Prince, Bucci said. Last she heard, none of them were structurally sound after the quake. The guesthouse where she and the people she brought with her used to stay is no longer standing. Neither is an orphanage where she used to work.

Bucci is currently working with her colleagues to bring 20 Haitian girls from the orphanage to the United States to get a decent education while the country is being rebuilt.

Some doubt the lasting effect of the charitable spirit.

"It's like 9/11," said Nick Iannone, an OSU sophomore. "There's an immediate reaction, but then people slip back into their normal lives."

Nevertheless, many groups on campus are continuing to show their support.

Originally Published: January 27, 2010

↑ Back to the top