Community members work toward Haiti relief

Student groups with personal ties to the shaken country, the USG, at least one eating club and a University staff member have all joined in the efforts. Collective efforts will culminate next week with Haiti Awareness Week.

In an early fundraising effort, Black Arts Company (BAC), Princeton Caribbean Connection and Princeton University Gospel Ensemble (PUGE) sponsored a bake sale in Frist Campus Center from Jan. 19 to 21.

The coordinators, Haitian-Americans Emmanuelle Pierre ’10, Astrid Rousseau ’10 and Miriam Camara ’10, wanted to contribute to “our second country and do justice to the ‘Princeton in the service of all nations’ motto,” Camara said in an e-mail to The Daily Princetonian. Pierre and Camara added that they chose to hold a bake sale, rather than sponsoring efforts to raise food, clothing and supplies, so they could raise money to make an immediate impact.

Camara said roughly 20 students volunteered at the bake sale, with over 100 students and other community members contributing $1,200 to Partners in Health.

She added that organizers had originally planned to donate proceeds to Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Foundation but changed their minds after the foundation fell under scrutiny for its administrative expenses. “The unfortunate allegations of mishandled funds coincided with the bake sale, and we did not want to lose potential donors who did not have the same confidence as we [did] in the organization,” Camara explained.

The USG, led by former president Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10 and his successor, Michael Yaroshefsky ’12, launched a campus-wide monetary collection on Jan. 24 with the initial goal of raising $2,500 for Partners in Health. The USG has since quadrupled its goal to $10,000. “I was thrilled to see that in just 24 hours we raised nearly $2,000,” Yaroshefsky said in an e-mail to the ‘Prince.’ According to the USG website, a total of $6,035 had been raised from 315 people at the time of publication.

Diemand-Yauman said in an e-mail that Partners in Health was chosen because it “is known for being one of the most well-trusted humanitarian organizations that is doing work on the grounds in Haiti.”

Charter Club collected $460 for UNICEF at a Jan. 22 dinner, the club’s community service chair, Sachi Lake ’11, said. She added that 40 current and prospective members contributed.

“It was almost obvious we were going to do a fundraiser for this,” Lake said. “Eating clubs are places where all members see each other each meal, which allows us to really personally ask people to donate,” Lake explained. “Ninety percent of the people I asked donated something.”

Wilson dining services worker Jean DeBrosse has also sponsored a fundraising effort. DeBrosse has raised $932 so far for Mercy Corps, with a goal of $8,000. He summed up the devestation on a personalized Mercy Corps web page: “From houses to businesses, educational institutions to hospitals, and lastly from the cathedral to the presidential palace, everything collapsed within 35 seconds of aftershocks,” he wrote.

In addition to fundraising, the catastrophe in Haiti has also sparked a drive to inform the campus community about larger cultural issues. Pierre said that the bake sale was only the starting point for the larger Haitian Awareness Week event.

“We are hoping that this awareness week will go a long way ... by allowing people to be exposed to part of the richness that is Haitian culture and hopefully make it seem a little more personal for people who are not Haitian-American,” Pierre said of the week’s goals.

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The week’s events include a film viewing and discussion; salsa lessons by the Princeton Salsa Club; a solidarity day; a food and clothing drive and a dance show called “To Haiti, with Love,” featuring BodyHype, DiSiac, High Steppers, BAC, eXpressions, Sympoh, Old NasSoul and PUGE. The week’s last event will be a semiformal dinner dance, “Konpas for a Cause,” that will feature catered Haitian food and a Haitian DJ.

The USG is also participating in the Global Crisis Response Steering Committee, formed by Associate Provost for International Initiatives Diana Davies, “to discuss not just relief for Haiti ... but also a coordinated university response to any international crisis in the future,” Yaroshefsky said.

Diemand-Yauman said he hopes that relief efforts will not be short-lived.

“Haiti will continue to need aid well into the future,” he explained. “I hope that the momentum of the initiative will continue long after this tragedy fades from the headlines.”