7.0 Quake Strikes Haiti, Hampden-Sydney Organizes Relief Effort
by: Yonathan Tarekegne ‘13SBP Robbins announces community-wide initiative to raise thousands for victims
“You’re buried alive. You can’t scream. You wonder if anyone will come…”
These were the words of a lucky survivor sharing the horrific details of being buried alive beneath concrete in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit the Caribbean island of Haiti at 5:00pm on the 12th of January 2010. The former French colony is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. The devastating earthquake that recorded an astounding 7 on the Richter scale—considered a major disaster—only helped further deteriorate the fragile state of the country.
Although the impoverished island has played host to too many natural disasters, they all pale in comparison to this one. The catastrophic quake is the worst one in 200 years; according to Haitian officials, it has left the dead count more than 100,000 and an estimated 300,000 homeless. The densely populated capital, Port-au-Prince, has been hit hard since the epicenter was several miles west of the city. What is even more troubling is that thousands of people are still buried alive and screaming for help. The desperate victims of the earthquake turned to their government for help, but the parliament, the presidential palace, many government offices, and the tax office are all in rubble. The president, just like the rest of the islanders, doesn’t have a place to sleep. Hospitals, schools, and the national cathedral didn’t escape the tragedy.
After years of corruption, failed leadership, and complete poverty, Haiti was showing visible improvement in its economic sector and was displaying symptoms of social stability. This tragic event will, to say the least, set things back. There are immediate problems facing people in Haiti in the aftermath of the incident. Obviously, food and water are vital, but lack of sanitation is one of the most important problems facing the survivors as the streets in the capital have turned into an outdoor morgue.
In his essay titled What Haiti Needs former president Bill Clinton phrases it thus: “The focus first must be on search and rescue, and on meeting peoples’ basic human needs.”
To meet these needs, Hampden-Sydney is doing its part. The Student Body Government, led by Student Body President Pierce Robbins, has launched a campaign titled From the Hill to Haiti. The 2-week drive has different parts. One of them has the goal of collecting $5 from everyone on campus to a final sum of $10,000. That money then goes to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund—a charity organization which Robbins claims “has the ability to apply 99-100% of the collected money directly into action. The other part involves encouraging other clubs to play their own role in the aid effort. For example, Unity Alliance has placed cloth collection boxes in all the academic buildings and other public areas like the post office.”
The rest is up to us. These people are desperate; they have nothing. Anything we can give them goes a long way.
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