Students, faculty and community members came together last night to coordinate Hokie United’s response to the tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti, drawing on previous ties between the Virginia Tech community and the Caribbean nation in efforts to offer support and hope for the future of the country.
A 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti on Jan. 12. Since then, various relief groups have been working to try to provide aid to a nation already riddled by poverty and violence.
Hokies United is a specialized group that only convenes to respond to tragedies. Faculty representative Judi Lynch, director of special initiatives for the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, explained that the group’s mission is to seek ways to give back in the name of the Tech community.
Lynch said that she hoped that the Hokies United efforts could help produce a global awareness of the situation in Haiti.
“After all of that was given to us after April 16th, we have a responsibility to be able to assist when there are opportunities,” she said. “This is our way to give back.”
“If it were up to us,” Lynch said, “Hokies United would never have to come together again.”
However, in light of the recent tragedy, Hokies United threw itself into action.
In a Tuesday night meeting run by SGA president Brandon Carroll, student leaders came together to discuss ways to raise funds, and identify various charities that those funds can be channeled to.
Hokies United has already joined forces with Partners in Health, the most prevalent aid group to be found in Haiti. Established in 1985, they have continued to grow, providing medical and other services to Haitians and connecting with other U.S.-based aid groups.
Paul Farmer, who wrote last year’s freshman common book, founded PIH. He spoke on Tech’s campus in April 2009.
PIH has already coupled with Hokies United and created a Web site through which people can donate money to Haiti. A feature of this Web site allows for the tracking of funds to monitor just how much the Tech nation as a whole is giving to aid efforts in Haiti.
On Tuesday night, representatives from PIH contributed their ideas to different student-run focus groups that dealt with the issues of logistics, broad fundraising, the hosting of special fundraising events, and educating the public on the issues facing Haiti.
PIH has had ongoing projects in Haiti since 1985. They have also been working with Engineers Without Borders, whose Tech chapter president was also present at the meeting.
Tim Moore, a Blacksburg-based Tech graduate, has worked with Engineers Without Borders since his graduation.
Moore became involved with the aid effort in Haiti three years ago after he and his wife adopted their daughter from the country.
“Haiti holds a special place in my heart,” Moore said.
Since 2006, Moore has been working with PIH and EWB to build clinics and schools.
The two major projects that Moore is involved with are an outpatient clinic in the town of Hinche and a school, orphanage, agricultural center and medical clinic in the town of Zaranger.
In Hinche, Moore said, the outpatient clinic would be large enough to treat about 600 people per day.
Moore also said that one of the more important features of his multiple projects in Zaranger would probably now be the orphanage and school complex.
“There’s probably a significant number of orphans now,” he said. “The number has probably tripled or even quadrupled.”
Moore has travelled to Haiti multiple times for project assessments. His next trip, planned for this March, has been postponed.
Moore is also teaming up with Tech students through Foundation Mamno.
“This is a small consortium of people getting together to develop a better way of life for the people in Haiti,” Moore said.
He’s also teamed up with international charity Oxfam. The Tech chapter of Oxfam, Moore said, was in the process of raising about $16,000 to develop and build water wells for the Zaranger project before the earthquake hit the country.
Despite obvious delays as the relief effort now focuses on helping deal with damage from the earthquake, Moore intends to see his projects through.
“There’s still going to be a need for these things after they get the initial damage under control,” he said. “Maybe there’ll be an expedited growth. Maybe we can get these other projects developed in the meantime.”
As EWB works through PIH and Hokies United to provide relief, other relief organizations are also continuing their previous efforts in Haiti and hoping to tailor them to the needs of those affected by the damage inflicted by the earthquake.
Theo Dillaha, faculty adviser for the Tech chapter of EWB, is also the director of the Tech Office of International Research, Education and Development.
The office has been working in Haiti for the last three years. They were initially approached by the Richmond Catholic Diocese, which cooperates with the Hinche diocese in Haiti. A connection was then forged between Tech and PIH.
In later projects, the office has connected with Haiti via an agriculture-focused arm of PIH, Zamni Agrikol. Another group, Caritas, is also involved in office’s construction work.
Dillaha said that his office has been working towards the development of a demonstration farm and getting new farming methods into the central plateau of the county, east of the capitol city Port-au-Prince.
Dillaha is also the director of the office’s SANREM CRSP project, a five-year research program that would support conservation agriculture and sustainable food programs in Haiti’s central plateau.
This project would hopefully help make changes to the way the people do their farming, to try to increase their food production, Dillaha said.
Members of Dillaha’s team were in Port-au-Prince for SANREM CRSP’s initial meetings just before the earthquake hit. The team had left the city and was en route for the central areas in which the farms would be concentrated just over an hour before the earthquake hit.
“We were very lucky that the first two days of the conference were in Port-au-Prince, but that a few hours before the earthquake hit, they were not still there,” Dillaha said.
One member of that team who was in Haiti at the time of the earthquake was Wade Thomason, an extension grains specialist and assistant professor of crop and soil environmental science at Tech.
On Tuesday, the day of the earthquake, Thomason had left the city in the late afternoon and was traveling out of the city and to the farm sites on the central plateau that he’s planning on working on.
“We didn’t feel the first earthquake,” he said, “because we were in the Land Rover and driving up into the mountains.”
Thomason and his traveling companions did feel the aftershocks, but there wasn’t any physical damage in the area he was in, about 40 miles outside of Port-au-Prince.
Thomason’s travel plans changed after they realized the severity of the earthquake.
“We very quickly realized that the partners we were going to work with were going to help them, so we decided to get out of the way so they could focus on medical assistance,” Thomason said.
“The most unfortunate thing,” Thomason said, “is that it seemed like the country was beginning to gain momentum, just within the past few months. Port-au-Prince seemed cleaner.”
Both Thomason and Dillaha said that they hope their projects can continue at a later date.
Most of the projects that go through the Tech Office of International Research Education and Development have to be approved and funded by the agency that coordinates aid activities in Haiti, the United States Agency for International Development.
Dillaha said that after discussions with their partners in Haiti, talks would resume within about a month to determine priorities.
“I feel they will want to continue with planned projects to rebuild the country,” Dillaha said.
For now, Dillaha’s office is working with Hokies United and PIH. All funds collected by his office are being donated to the PIH Web site so that Hokies United can keep better track of the total funds donated by Tech-affiliated groups.
Thomason said that although there have been somewhat shocking scenes featured in the media, such as people brandishing machetes in the streets of Port-au-Prince, he doesn’t believe that’s the true essence of the Haitian people.
“This is a terrible disaster in a country that on its best day struggles,” Thomason said. “Desperate times bring out desperate actions. What would we do if it had happened to us?”