Students used their hearts, minds and mouths to “Remember, Rediscover, Rebuild and Reflect” on the 2010 Haitian earthquake at AU’s second annual Haiti Week.
The week’s events included:
• Haitian-inspired cuisine at TDR,
• performances by On a Sensual Note and AU Poetics,
• a screening of PBS Frontline’s “The Quake,”
• a panel on “Haiti: Women’s Empowerment and Reconstruction”
• and a memorial service in the SIS Founder’s Lounge.
During the memorial service, representatives from local Haiti-related organizations, University Chaplain Rev. Joe Eldridge and members of AU’s Catholic Student Association spoke and recited prayers. Mariam Aziz and Maria Schneider, both juniors in the College of Arts and Sciences, also discussed their experiences on past alternative breaks.
Planning for Haiti Week began in fall 2011, said Shoshanna Sumka, the assistant director of global learning and leadership at AU’s Center for Community Engagement and Service.
Sumka worked with Rebekah Israel and Rebecca Stein-Lobovits, the two students who will lead the spring 2012 alternative break trip to Haiti. Six other students, five of whom will be going on the alternative break, were involved as well.
“I’m here just to network and to give a better image of Haiti by telling the things that I experienced in Haiti as well,” said Alyssa Vasquez, SIS ’10, who spoke about Haiti at the arts and cultural event and the memorial service. Vasquez works at the Haitian organization Haiti in Transition, a non-partisan movement aimed at projecting a more positive image of Haiti through youth engagement.
Last year’s events, and the emotions surrounding these events, were more raw because it was just a year after the actual disaster, Sumka said.
But this year’s events still served their purpose because “it just brings Haiti back to people’s awareness,” she said.
Israel, currently a master’s student in CAS, emphasized the need for the dialogue about Haiti to continue to flow and for students to not only focus on the negative aspects of Haiti.
“Haitians are not just about poverty,” Israel said. “They have their own culture and it’s beautiful and if you pay attention to it, then you care more, maybe you put more effort into restoring their culture.”
Students can expect Haiti Week to continue to be an annual event.
“As long as I’m here at this University I will continue to bring awareness around Haiti for at least four years after the earthquake,” Sumka said. “That’s my promise.”
