‘Canes Helping Haiti

UM has an established presence in Haiti's Central Plateau, operating Project Medishare and its community health project as well as a family medicine training program for Haitian physicians in the city of Cap-Haitien. The Miller School of Medicine has mobilized those resources in Haiti to provide immediate assistance to the quake victims.  A UM medical team in Haiti led by Dr. Barth Green Is working around the clock to save lives, while University faculty physicians in Miami are treating patients evacuated from the nation.

This is just the beginning of UM's response. Working with the Haitian Student Organization, the Butler Center for Service and Leadership, other student organizations, and schools and colleges, the University will continue to provide information on the various ways everyone can contribute to its coordinated relief efforts.

A community forum and candlelight vigil on the University of Miami campus on January 20 drew attention to the plight of Haiti's quake victims and addressed strategies for the country's recovery. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Arielle Duperval was one of several speakers who addressed an audience of hundreds of students, faculty, and staff members who gathered on the UM campus. She and her two classmates, Kristina Rosales and Austin Webbert, were in Haiti as part of Assistant Professor Louis Herns Marcelin's initiative to establish community youth centers in the country when the earthquake hit.

After the quake had subsided, Arielle Duperval and her two University of Miami classmates cautiously stepped out of the car in which they were passengers and began to walk the streets of Haiti's capital city, witnessing horrific scenes of death and destruction.

"Take everything you've ever seen on CNN and multiply it by infinity," said the 19-year-old Duperval, describing what she saw after the devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake destroyed much of Port-au-Prince.

But amid the chaos, she also saw scenes of courage: men and women running fearlessly into buildings on the verge of collapse to rescue children trapped beneath the rubble.

All three, as well as several other UM students who were in the country on intersession courses, made it back safely to the U.S.

One of the best ways to help the quake victims right now is by giving to the University of Miami Haiti Project through United Way/Operation Helping Hands, which supports the work of UM doctors, nurses, and students who are working directly with victims in Haiti. We appreciate the United Way's help in making this relief effort possible. If you prefer to make your donation directly to the University of Miami-Global Institute, which supports the work of our medical team in Haiti, you can donate online by clicking here, or send your check made out to the "University of Miami-Global Institute" to P.O. Box 248073, Coral Gables, Florida, 33124.

Students who wish to volunteer as part of UM's Haiti Relief efforts should visit www.miami.edu/umhaitirelief. This site has information on the various volunteer opportunities available to students and ways that they can get connected to help.

For more information on UM's Haiti Relief efforts, including the various initiatives that UM is involved with, please visit www.miami.edu/haiti.