Hood Today

The disastrous earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, affected an estimated three million Haitians according to the Red Cross, but it also affected many more worldwide, including two Hood College students.

Hood College freshman Fabiola Jean-Louis and senior Gardy Jean-Gilles had to endure the stress of turning on the TV to disaster with no way to contact family and friends in their native country. It took Gardy only two days to reach his family, but it took Fabiola a week to finally hear from her family.

"I didn't hear from my parents for one week, then one of my brothers came online and said we are all there, don't worry," Fabiola said. "My neighborhood is completely destroyed. It makes me so sad because I don't know what to believe. I don't know if I'm going to find my friends I grew up with. I don't know if I'm going to find my classmates."

Fabiola has been able to contact her parents and some siblings, but has not spoken to all of her relatives and friends yet.

Before the quake Fabiola spoke with her parents about twice a month, now it is "really often," she said. She also emailed many of her friends trying to see how they are doing, but has not gotten many responses back.

After an intense two days Gardy received a phone call from his parents letting him know that they were alive. Now he talks to his family just about every day.

"It took me two days to find out my family was OK. Right after the earthquake, there was no communication. Everything was shut down, like electricity. There was nothing," Gardy said.

He added that he was not too worried about his parents' safety because they live near the Dominican Republic border, which was not as badly affected by the earthquake.

According to the United States Geological Survey, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck just 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince was the strongest quake in the area since 1770. Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haiti and is home to about two million Haitians.

After the quake, with the city devastated, residents took to sleeping in the streets. The poverty stricken country is still struggling to provide food, water and medical attention to its residents. Estimates about the final death toll have been around 200,000 people.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Haiti is home to just over nine million people and is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80 percent of the population living under the poverty line.

Port-au-Prince has been the focus of much media coverage, but Gardy's hometown of Jacmel was also one of the cities significantly damaged.

"I think CNN is doing a really good job, but one of my concerns is they are only focusing on Port-au-Prince," Gardy said. "In Jacmel, about 80 percent of that city is destroyed. A lot of people have died there, but on the TV you don't see that because Jacmel is not Port-au-Prince, which is unfair."

Fabiola doesn't watch the coverage of the earthquake anymore because she is afraid of not concentrating on her classes.

"I used to cry more often, but now I think that classes keep me busy," she said. "I don't spend that much time thinking about it."

Neither student has lived in Haiti recently, but both plan on going back soon to see family and friends and to help with the relief effort. Fabiola lived in Haiti for the first 17 years of her life, but attended high school in Costa Rica during her junior and senior years.

"I really want to go back for the summer. I just talked to my parents about it, but they might not want me to go there," she said. "The situation is really bad and they are all scared about it."

Gardy has not visited Haiti since the summer in 2008, but he is hoping to go home during spring break. If it wasn't for a passport mix-up in Washington D.C., Gardy would have been in Haiti during the earthquake.

"I was supposed to be there when the earthquake happened, but I was waiting for my passport to come from D.C.," Gardy said. "I could have been there. So you know, everything happens for a reason."

His 20-year-old brother, who lives in Port-au-Prince, also had a close encounter when the earthquake hit. He was taking a medical exam at school just before the quake struck.

"The moment he stepped out of the university, the building collapsed, with everybody inside," Gardy said.

Immediately after the quake, fundraising opportunities to help the country arose. Donations through text messaging in the United States alone raised $10 million only three days after the earthquake. The "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon, which aired on January 22, raised over $61 million.

Rev. Beth O'Malley is leading Hood's efforts to fundraise and held an organizational meeting on Friday, January 29, to start the process. O'Malley is focused on raising money rather than collecting food and clothes because access to Haiti has been severely limited by the earthquake.

"This will be a long-term effort so we're hoping to find ways to keep people aware and involved for longer than just a few weeks," she said.

Gardy agreed that donating money is the best way to help Haiti recover from this disaster, but also said that smaller natural disasters have shaped Haitians into a resilient group.

"The Haitian people are very strong. Almost every year we have a major hurricane or something like that. A lot of people have died from disasters," he said. "I still can not believe the proportion like that happened, but I think we're going to be fine."

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