The Virginia Informer

Last Updated:2/3/10 Section: News

In the wake of the destruction caused by the recent earthquake in the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, people from across the world began to come together to provide aid and relief to the people of one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. The impulse to help has been felt at the College, as students come together to provide what aid they can array against so bleak a situation.

Relief efforts centered at the College are being organized under the banner of a group called William and Mary Supports Haiti, which presently has well over 1,000 members on Facebook. The group aims to coordinate the work the numerous campus organizations that have lined up to offer support. The group plans on sponsoring a week dedicated to fundraisers in support of the relief effort. The campus-wide Haiti relief week is slated to run from February 8 to February 12. WMSH is set to hold a benefit concert to commemorate the one month anniversary of the earthquake, and the Tribe Voices website was set up on Monday, February 1 to provide additional information on relief events. The group's leaders stress that the organization's primary purpose is to coordinate rather than to run the student-led relief work, their intentions being to help interested student organizations with logistics, publicity and scheduling. "We don't want our engagement, as WM students, to end when the earthquake goes out of the news" said Mallory Johnson, who has helping the group coordinate activity. They are working with organizations such as the University of Fondwa and Partners in Health to provide aid. Legislation pending in the Student Assembly has already proposed an expenditure of $1,000 to be spent on t-shirts to be sold at ten dollars apiece; the proceeds are to be donated to, Haiti's only degree-conferring institution of higher education. The t-shirt sale was necessitated by prevailing interpretations of Student Assembly finance codes that would effectively forbid direct contribution from student funds.

Additional information on relief efforts is available from wmsupportshaiti@gmail.com.

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