With bell chimes seven seconds apart for Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake Jan. 12, political science freshman Terry Pharaon talks about the support MSU has given him and his fellow Haitian students.
Kyle Martin was sitting in class — the same as any other day — when he received the news. He sprinted out of the lecture as soon as he got the text message: “What’s going on in Haiti is horrible.”
Martin, an osteopathic medicine graduate student at MSU, has been traveling to Haiti since he was 12 years old and last visited the Caribbean country in August to work in a care clinic.
After a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the country Jan. 12, the clinic collapsed and victims are now being treated in a nearby soccer field, Martin said.
The place was like a war zone, a Haitian friend told him.
“She said that there were people missing limbs — people that have been crushed,” he said. “They’re running really short on food and water and they don’t have any supplies to treat people who have been through traumatic incidents like broken bones or cuts.”
Nine days after tragedy struck Haiti, leaving tens of thousands dead, Martin has joined many other MSU students who are doing what they can to support and rebuild the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. With a candlelight vigil Wednesday night and plans for students to travel to Haiti to help rebuild, the MSU community is reaching out to the devastated nation.
From the Caribbean to Mid-Michigan
The bells rang seven seconds apart at Beaumont Tower on Wednesday night to match the Haitian earthquake’s magnitude.
“The spirit of this university has always been to take a look around us and find an answer to what we can do,” MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said to a crowd of students, faculty and East Lansing officials.
Crowd members held candles to a remember those affected by the tragedy as the MSU community showed its support for a country to which some might have little connection.
“That is a message to the world that they care about what happened,” said Stephanie Motschenbacher, spokeswoman for International Studies and Programs, who organized the vigil.
There were 12 MSU alumni in Haiti at the time of the earthquake and the MSU Alumni Association has yet to make contact with them as of Tuesday afternoon, said Peter Briggs, director of the Office for International Students and Scholars.
“Sometimes we can let thinking (things) far away (do) not affect us, and in fact in a different indirect sort of way they do affect us,” Briggs said.
Currently, there are no MSU students studying abroad in Haiti, the Office of Study Abroad said.
The rebuilding process in Haiti is under way as at least 12 countries, including the United States, have sent aid to help clear roads, provide food, administer medical treatment and build shelters, said Reza Nassiri, the Director of MSU’s Institute of International Health.
“We are a global village,” said Nassiri, who has spent time working in Haiti. “If something happens in the North Pole, it inherently affects the South Pole.”
Help Haiti Heal
It took MSU students almost no time to assemble and assist students with ties to Haiti and raise funds for relief, said Nick Kerr, a political science graduate student and president of the Caribbean Student Association, or CSA.
Kerr, along with CSA and many groups at MSU, has established the Help Haiti Heal initiative, which is an MSU effort to provide support to those affected by the earthquake.
In the week since the disaster, CSA has helped organize counseling sessions for Haitian students, collected about $2,500 in donations and is planning a Caribbean music festival for February, with all proceeds going to Haiti relief, Kerr said.
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“There are students here within the MSU community with family members who are gravely effected by the earthquake,” he said. “If we want to promote Spartan pride, then we need to recognize that there are members of our community that are hurting, and donating to this relief effort will help them and their families be able to rebuild.”
Awareness of the tragedy has spread rapidly through Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter, said Nate Erickson, a 2009 advertising alumnus who co-founded iRelief, a Haitian relief organization working with recording artist Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Haiti.
Erickson and iRelief have received donations from FedEx, Delta Airlines, New York City and numerous celebrities, Erickson said.
“This is the main way we’ve reached out to every corporation, the way they’ve reached out to us — every celebrity, the way they’ve gotten back at us and spread the word. It has been an absolutely incredible response,” he said.
Continued support
Erickson also is working with Students Rebuilding Haiti, which is a coalition of students who are attempting to arrange an alternative spring break trip to Haiti to help the rebuilding effort in whatever capacity they can, he said.
Although the trip has yet to receive university approval, group members are optimistic they will help rebuild the country firsthand, said Colin Boyd, an economics junior organizing the trip.
“Traveling in the past, I’ve seen how much a face to a face can help instead of to just sending money,” Boyd said.
“Actually helping and building something and having a greater impact … that would be great.”
Martin said he plans to run in the Tallahassee Marathon in February and is hoping to raise $5,000 to support the clinic and his friends in Haiti.
“(Marathons) show how much you care about a cause that you’re willing to go through a grueling distance to raise money for a cause,” Martin said.
Although most students might not go the distance Martin is to raise money, any contribution is welcome, said Michael Largey, a music professor who spent six years teaching music in Haiti.
“As this disappears from the front page, people should not forget about Haiti,” Largey said.
“The task of rebuilding the country is going to be one that will take many years unless concerned neighbors in the U.S. help make that a reality.”
