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Hope for Haiti Benefit to be held on Thursday

Written by Shelby Weir, The Shorthorn staff

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 09:04 PM

International business junior Yara Mendez donates money that will be sent to Haiti through the American Red Cross Tuesday on the Library Mall. The African Students� Organization and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are collecting donations all week on the Library Mall and University Center Mall. (The Shorthorn: Rasy Ran)

Port au Prince was shaken on Jan. 12 and Haiti will never be the same. Shortly before 5 p.m., a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, the strongest to hit Haiti in a century, struck the country.

The earthquake changed lives on the island, turning homes to rubble and leaving people with nowhere to go. Authorities estimate somewhere near 200,000 lives have been lost, and they’re still counting.

According to UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations, help has slowly increased over the past week, but it is a long road ahead to get the Haitian people back on their feet.

“There are not enough people to help everybody that needs help there,” Haitian-born student Lady Elizabeth Jean-Pierre said. “They don’t have much. They’re running out of food and they don’t have any fresh water.”

The biomedical engineering junior is the president of the university’s Habitat for Humanity chapter, now known as Hammers for Hope. Jean-Pierre still has family living in Haiti. In response to the events in Haiti, Jean-Pierre and fellow Haitian Farah Val, an education junior, are partnering with the NAACP to host the Hope for Haiti Benefit.

The event will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday in the Lone Star Auditorium in the MAC.

“We have representatives coming from the Dallas branch of H4H and the Red Cross to speak about what they’re doing,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’re also going to have singing, poetry reading, refreshments and hopefully some dancing. We also want to show pictures and talk about the history of Haiti.”

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All proceeds from this event will be sent to the American Red Cross to fund relief efforts. According to nursing freshman Foluke Okolo, who worked at one of the ribbon booths, sales are going well.

Jean-Pierre said her struggling family back in Haiti has given her a reason to host the benefit.

“Me being here – I want to do as much as I can,” she said. “This is about a lot of people coming together. Even if I can’t help my immediate family, I can help others.”

Having patience is very difficult, she said.

“We’re trying to send money, but we just have to wait,” Jean-Pierre said. “We have lost some family members. Some passed away, but some are fine. You’re excited that some family members are okay but you’re worried about how to reach them. It’s really stressful.”

Val said the watching the news is hard to do.

“I try not to watch the news,” Val said. “I don’t have the heart to take it. I could have been there. I could have been dead for all I know. That’s hard.”

Jean-Pierre said she feels that it is important for everyone to remember what happened in Haiti.

“The sad thing is – people are going to forget if we wait, and it hurts my heart that people aren’t going to care anymore,” Jean-Pierre said. “This isn’t going to be over tomorrow.”

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 20 January 2010 07:16 PM )

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