E-mail this storyGoshen College calls for prayers, donations and connecting in response to Haitian earthquake
Goshen College has a long connection to Haiti and the Haitian people, and extend our prayers and support in response to the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake that has devastated the country.
DONATE
There are many worthy organizations assisting with the relief efforts in Haiti. One that has a long history in the country and shares Goshen College's Anabaptist roots is Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a relief, service and development agency. Consider donating to support their work.
Another very worthy place to donate to is the Haitian Community Hospital, where Goshen College student Rayna Pierre's mother is a doctor. It is a 50-bed hospital in Pétionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It has the only Intensive Care Unit in the city. It is a small poor hospital with a lot of heart. Consider donating to support their work.
HOW GOSHEN COLLEGE IS RESPONDING:
(2.4.10 UPDATE)
So far, $3,063.62 has been raised on campus so far, including a donation of $1,000 from the 2009 Internation Student Club Coffeehouse profits and $400 from the Kick-Off event this past weekend. All of this will be split between the work of Mennonite Central Committee in Haiti and the Haitian Community Hospital.
(1.18.10 UPDATE)
Prayers have been offered in several worship settings on
campus over the past week for the people of Haiti.
Goshen College Athletics donated all gate receipts from the Jan. 16 women's basketball game versus Marian to MCC relief efforts. They raised $440.
Students and Campus Ministries are placing collection boxes around campus to fundraise support for Mennonite Central Committee's work in Haiti and for the Haitian Community Hospital (where student Rayna Pierre's mother is a doctor). After three days, more than $350 has been raised.
Receive updates about the college's response and share your perspectives, ideas and stories by becoming a fan of Goshen College on Facebook.
A young boy wears a bandage over his nose to abate the smell of death that permeates sections of Port-au-Prince. (MCC photo by Ben Depp)
HAITIAN CONNECTIONS
(1.18.10 UPDATE)
There are two Haitian students studying at Goshen College
at this time. Read
their story in the Goshen News (1/14/10), including how
the earthquake tragedy has impacted their families, and keep them
in your prayers.
Goshen College sent 715 students and 17 faculty pairs in Haiti
from the spring of 1968 to the winter of 1986 for Study-Service
Term. The program ended abruptly in the middle of a unit
because of chaos following Jean Claude Duvalier's departure from
office. For alumni who would have gone on Study-Service Term to
Haiti (or others who are interested in this unique
perspective), a
new Facebook group has been formed to connect in the midst of
this recent tragedy.
Director Emeritus of International Education Arlin Hunsberger
and his wife Naomi spent 18 years in Haiti, including with
Goshen College. Read Arlin's perspectives and response in the days
immediately following the disaster.
- "Local missionaries and other aid workers start working to help Haitian friends and neighbors," Elkhart Truth, Jan. 14, 2010.
- "Former GC instructor concerned about friends in Haiti," Goshen News, Jan. 13, 2010.
And Goshen College alums Kathy '75 and Virgil Troyer '74
are serving as the Mennonite Central Committee regional disaster
management coordinators for Haiti. The Troyers had been serving
with MCC in Honduras and are from Orrville, Ohio. Keep them in your
prayers.
Alumnus David Reimer '84 sent the following note to the
college on Jan. 17:
"Like many of you, I have a connection to Haiti having served as the Economic Counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince from 2004 to 2006. Looking at the horrifying pictures and reading the accounts, I worried about the fate of many of the people I used to know and work with. Particularly unsettling is to see pictures of destroyed buildings were I used to regularly meet contacts to discuss economic or commercial issues between our two countries.
The difficulties the Haitian government and the international community has responding to the situation is an issue we had to grapple with those years when Haiti was dealing with a different problem – a gang-led insurrection. Haiti has in past years teetered on the edge of being a failed state; the government is unable to provide basic services to its citizenry, whether it be safety or infrastructure or justice. Haiti has been unable to do so for many years. In those cases, what responsibility do we in the international community have? It is a question that we in the Embassy grappled with, and I myself have thought about. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution to that complex question.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the victims of this horrible disaster. Even having lived there, I can scarcely imagine the suffering the people of Haiti are going through right now."
