At the University of Virginia, news of the earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday struck home.
Stephanie Jean-Charles, a 22-year-old Haitian graduate student at UVa.’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy who worked in Haiti, died Tuesday of head injuries at her family’s home in Port-au-Prince.
“This is a real tragedy for us,” says university spokesman Dan Heuchert, adding that the school plans a memorial service Thursday and is coordinating its own relief project.
Similar relief responses are being replicated at schools throughout the country, notably at historically Black colleges and universities. Faculty and students are raising money for CARE and other relief groups, gathering nonperishable food and clothing, planning their own medical care trips to Haiti and holding teach-ins.
The Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta has established a fund to provide relief via the Atlanta office of CARE. Also, the school plans to send its medical faculty to Haiti in coming days although plans haven’t been finalized, says spokeswoman Cherie Richardson. The school has close ties to the Caribbean country. Its International Health Council organizes six-day medical missions to Haiti that allow faculty and students to help with medical care and public health issues.
Meanwhile, Morehouse College has formed a Haitian Relief Effort that will collect food, toiletries, towels, clothing and pain relievers. “We’ve got quite a bit going on,” says spokesman Add Seymour Jr.
At Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, senior school management has said the school will match all aid donations dollar for dollar for a total of $25,000, according to new sources.
