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Here’s how to help now!
If you are wondering how to help now donations to PIH are urgently needed TODAY. PIH doctors and health care workers are on the ground already and they know what is needed. Their extensive network in Haiti already includes thousands of community health workers, doctors, nurses, drivers, etc. they are already running a field hospital.
Your money will flow more quickly and directly to where it’s most needed: 94 cents out of every dollar goes to work to help the community, no middlemen or bureaucracy or politics. During the 2008 hurricanes they got supplies and personnel in place immediately, even with all the bridges out. faster than most of the larger relief agencies because they live there and are already organized!
Looking at the long road ahead, PIH has asked the Walk Committee to stick to the original pre-earthquake focus of raising money for schools/education. This is even more vital now, as much of the Port-Au-Prince population is homeless and beginning to migrate away from the city.
More updates coming soon
Mesi anpil!
Jen
Join us in Cambridge, Mass this upcoming March 27, 2010
Sant Bani Staff, Students, and Alumni will continue
our long-time support of Haiti at the Urban Walk For Haiti.
PIH has been instrumental in providing quality medical care to the poorest areas of the world, as well as in the fight against HIV/Aids, and providing infrastructure to ensure people’s health.
This year’s donations will go to support building homes for families displaced by the September 2008 hurricanes in Haiti.
If you want to walk or donate click here.
My Thoughts on the Walk for Haiti
by Sant Bani Staff Jen Schongalla
“… Hundreds of people gathered last weekend in Cambridge, MA, to celebrate the tiny nation of Haiti, to learn about Haitian culture and to raise awareness about, and money for a successful organization that works together with local communities to transform the lives of thousands of rural Haitians. Partners In Health (PIH) has been working in Haiti for over 25 years, and has pioneered a model for comprehensive healthcare that is currently being replicated in more than nine countries worldwide, including the U.S. The theme of this year’s walk was the Haitian proverb “Tout moun se moun,” every person is a person.
On Saturday April 4, a group of more than fifty people from the Sant Bani School community rallied to affirm “Tout moun se moun,” by participating in the sixth annual Urban Walk for Haiti in Cambridge, MA. More than thirty students, along with staff, alumni, parents, relatives and friends joined forces to raise over $4000 for Partners In Health. This year marks the fourth year that Sant Bani has been involved with this event. This year’s Walk raised nearly $40,000, to be used for rebuilding homes in rural Haiti, destroyed by last September’s hurricanes. This total is the second largest in the history of the event.
Since 2004 Sant Bani students and teachers have unofficially donated $12,000 to PIH through their work with the Mooseman Triathlon and the “Walk For Haiti.” That might not sound like a lot of money, but considering that the size of the Sant Bani high school is 47 students it’s proportionally impressive. Last fall, when PIH medical director Joia Mukherjee spoke at Sant Bani’s “Conversations in a Changing World” conference, she wove the concept of “Tout moun se moun” into the rich tapestry of “ubuntu”
which shares a root with the Creole word “moun.” “Ubuntu” is a Bantu word common to at least fifty African languages, and it means essentially that a person is a person through other people. We are human precisely because we love and serve one another.
Through their commitments to cultivate the best in themselves and ultimately to put their knowledge and talents to use in serving others, Sant Bani students demonstrated “ubuntu” in action at the Walk for Haiti, just as they do whenever they undertake a project in our local communities. Mesi anpil (many thanks) to everyone who participated, whether you walked, raised money, bought soup or donated crafts, money or positive energy. You have made a real difference in many lives. …"
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