European Disaster Volunteers

Since a group of Students for Ayiti members and supporters traveled to Haiti and helped us relieve flooding at a local orphanage, they have become the driving force behind an extraordinary effort to house 47 orphaned children in our community. Students for Ayati demonstrates once again the extraordinary power of supposedly “ordinary” individuals.

Students for Ayiti describe themselves in the following terms:

On the evening of January 12, 2010, an earthquake devastated Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. With limited communication leaving the island, major news networks reported on what was a night of absolute terror. Here in America, we could only feel sadness and overwhelming helplessness for a population of people suffering tremendously. For those with relatives and friends in Haiti, the situation was especially heartbreaking as most forms of correspondence were unavailable. Even today, families anxiously anticipate any kind of information regarding the safety and well being of loved ones.

Motivated by our compassion and concern, five students at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University decided to come together in effort to aid Haiti in any way we can. We know that many want to help as well so our goal is to provide students with the resources to do so. In this time of pain and tragedy, let us use our abilities to effect change for the survivors of this earthquake.

We are Students for Ayiti (Haiti).

Since our initiation we've assisted students with finding resources to help with relief and aid including assisting with the medical campus fundraising event, meeting with Haitian Fulbright Scholars currently in the United States and have volunteered at Yele offices in New York City.

Our volunteer service trip to GrassRoots United, where we met EDV was our first trip abroad. Since that trip it’s been a priority of ours to work with EDV and the local orphanage Hands Together to Defend the Children to secure housing and necessities to the children. In the future Students 4 Ayati plans to join forces with a student organization Group for Community Recovery to maintain student interest and continue local awareness and volunteer service trips.

We are looking forward to working with more Students 4 Ayiti volunteers and supporters as our work here in Haiti continues.

Read more about Students for Ayati on their blog.