Haiti: determination follows devastation

All eyes are on Haiti. Media coverage of the country has dominated television screens for more than two weeks since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the country Jan. 12.

Haiti, an already devastated country, became the scene of a worst-case scenario. Its astonishingly dense population, in combination with its standing as the least-developed country in the western hemisphere, complimented by an 80 percent impoverishment level, could not have been a worse or more vulnerable target.

A world, where currently a devastated people dig through rubble, scream out for mothers, children, siblings, grandparents and fathers buried beneath thousands of pounds of rubble, collapsed buildings and rigid pieces of a crumbled hospital, is something we're used to seeing on television, in movies and stories of far away places.

In reality, the world on our screens is closer than some might guess. Some may be slow to believe that an inhabitant of Miami, Fla. sitting comfortably on a beach could hop a plane and be in Haiti in half the time it would take them to get to Texas.

However, Haiti is, in fact, only an hour and a half away from the tip of America's southeastern border.

People all around the world have watched the struggle that the people of Haiti have lived through, and as the devastation has become clearer to onlookers, volunteers have swarmed into the country, organizing aid efforts and any kind of help possible. Some of these volunteers are beginning to organize in the Seguin community as well as on the TLU campus.

The Seguin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce opened an account Jan. 21 with the American Bank of Texas. The proceeds will be going through the American Red Cross foundation.

"You can donate at the branch of American Bank of Texas that's located here in Seguin. You just tell them when you go there that you want to donate to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Haiti Relief fund," Kathryn Nyholm, VISTA volunteerism coordinator, said.

Students whose organizational focus is on a global scale have been quick to organize and offer support. Global Student Organization members began taking donations Jan. 27.

"Global Student Organization will be giving the collected amount of money through donations to Wesley Foundation of TLU, which is also helping on Haiti relief," Kade Leniqi, sophomore political science major and GSO vice president, said. "GSO encourages all who want to make a difference and help the Haiti citizens in need to donate and keep them in your thoughts and prayers. This is a wonderful opportunity to show our compassion and love for others."

According to Sarah Flores, junior music education major and GSO club relations officer, students who donate at the GSO table will sign their name to a poster of Haiti's flag that will then be posted in the ASC.

"In efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Haiti, Global Student Organization members are willing to continue to assist and help support the people of Haiti for recovery. At GSO, our thoughts are with the people of Haiti, their families across the world and the international peacemakers staff who is struggling because of the loss of human resources, infrastructure and communication services as well," Leniqi said. "The purpose of Global Student Organization is to promote interest in issues of global significance, to create better intercultural relations and to foster international friendship and understanding, and we want to help and support Haiti to recover from this natural catastrophe."

Another organization that's accustomed to providing an answer for those in need of housing and shelter is beginning benefit efforts at the start of February.

"I feel responsible to help Haiti since Habitat for Humanity is about housing the homeless. I just couldn't help it when my professors and friends were talking about how broken Haiti is," Brenlyn Vatthauer, junior biology major and Habitat for Humanity president, said. "Since TLU's Habitat for Humanity is a national organization, I have been receiving emails about how International Habitat is helping Haiti."

Habitat for Humanity will be keeping with the season's holiday, Valentines Day, in order to draw in students to help donation efforts.

"We will be selling lollipops that you can attach love letters onto, and we will send them through the campus mail. Also, we will be selling balloons. You can write a love note and we will stick it into the [helium filled] balloon. We will also deliver the balloon to your crush on Feb. 11 to 12 for an extra dollar," Vatthauer said.

In part, it has been due to continuous media coverage, taking place amidst the heartbreaking rapidly rising death toll, that has assisted in moving students to action.

"I saw an AOL news article about a young girl who was found under the rubble two to three days after the earthquake hit. They had hope she would live, despite the wounds she had suffered, but because of the lack of medical facilities, she ended up passing away," Flores said. "It was the title of that particular article that really hit me, 'Hopeless in Haiti.' That really made me want to give them back a sense of hope."

According to Nyholm, students are very eager to get involved and ready to help.

"A lot of the donation and collection things are going to be going on for a while because obviously Haiti is going to need a lot of help for a really long time,"

Nyholm said. For more information on volunteering visit Kathryn Nyholm at the Center for Servant Leadeship.