Haiti support begins to dwindle
By Jack Wagner
After the Jan. 12 earthquake rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Santa Clara students responded with a massive outpouring of aid for the destroyed nation. Now, one month later, that help has faded.
Director of Campus Ministry Jack Treacy, S.J., believes support from Santa Clara has diminished some.
"As time goes by it (Haiti) is sort of removed from people's radar screens," he said. "But even though Haiti will sort of be moved aside from the headlines at some point, it's a huge reconstruction effort of a whole country."
There are 212,000 dead, 300,000 injured and one million homeless, according to the Prime Minister of Haiti, Jean-Max Bellerive.
While Haiti may disappear from many students' minds, the country's problems have not vanished.
At Santa Clara, both Emergency Medical Services and Campus Ministry are working to ensure that support for Haiti is not just a fad, but a continued effort.
Following the disaster, both Campus Ministry and EMS took immediate action to raise funds.
"They were instrumental in alerting the campus in ways to provide aid," Treacy said.
Campus Ministry sent out a letter about different aid organizations to which people can contribute, held an interfaith prayer service two weeks after the earthquake and took up a collection at masses for the Catholic Relief Service and the Jesuit Relief Service.
"The big thing was to invite the campus community to offer the monetary support, as it seemed very clear what they needed the most was just to get money for medical supplies and food and all the basics," Treacy said.
They amassed roughly $4,700 in the special Sunday collections, all of which is going to help aid organizations in Haiti.
Joel Wackerbarth, co-director of EMS, is leading the EMS fundraising efforts with fellow EMT Alex Krengel.
"I knew that I could donate $100, but what good does that do?" Wackerbarth said.
EMS set a short term goal of raising $5,000, already earning $4,800. They hope to raise $10,000 before the end of the year.
Other campus organizations, such as the Multicultural Center and the Residential Learning Community Association are contributing.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of its population living under the poverty line, according to CNN. Because of this, it doesn't have the built-up infrastructure to deal with a disaster of this scale, and needs help from outside sources.
According to Wackerbarth, EMS will try and continue towards its $10,000 goal. This will be accomplished through continued tabling in front of Benson Memorial Center and other fundraising efforts, such as a benefit concert that is in the works and would take place later in the year.
"I think there's kind of a shock and awe campaign of where people are kind of tired of hearing about (Haiti's earthquake), but we're not tired of it," Wackerbarth said.
Campus Ministry is trying to keep Haiti in the prayers and minds of members of the community but believe that focusing on just this one nation in need is ignoring countless other groups who are also in need of aid but aren't receiving as much attention.
"You can call the earthquake a natural disaster, but the amount of devastation, the number of deaths, really was not just the earthquake but this man-made situation where people were building to codes that we would not recognize as safe codes here," Treacy said.
Campus Ministry is focusing on these impoverished nations, including Haiti, by holding mass collections, hosting a 24-hour food fast during Lent and by hosting simple meals and talks on Fridays during Lent.
Next week, a memorial service for the brother of Professor Al Bruno of the marketing department will be held. Bruno's brother is still missing in Haiti and presumed dead. The memorial is still in the planning stages.
Contact Jack Wagner at jcwagner@scu.edu or (408) 554-4546.