Watertown High School Haiti Relief Project

On January 12th the capital city of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, was hit by a massive earthquake, a 7.0 on the Richter scale, which destroyed most of the city. Now a humanitarian crisis is occurring, and the Haitian people are suffering without food, water, or medical care. We are coordinating fundraising here at WHS to support the relief effort, and so far have collected $477.27 which will be sent to the American Red Cross Haiti Fund. Thank you for your generosity, and if you have not yet donated, please do!
We have also formed a club, called the Haiti Relief Club, and a Facebook group. We are planning a fundraising faculty-student basketball game, a raffle, and other events.
Haiti is located on the western side of the island of Hispaniola, sharing it with the Dominican Republic, and is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. It was once a French slave colony, with sugar plantations. In 1804 Haiti had the first successful slave rebellion, was the first black-led republic of the world, and became the first independent nation in Latin America. Yet a history of violent political takeovers has kept the nation poverty-stricken. In 1957 the CIA helped François “Papa Doc” Duvalier become president. Duvalier soon announced himself President for Life and proved to be a vicious dictator whose regime was marked by autocracy, severe corruption, and terrorism by his personal militia, the Tonton Macoutes. An estimated 30,000 were killed and thousands more exiled because of his tendency to use murder and expulsion to suppress his opponents during his reign. The Duvalier family continued to rule the country well into the 1980s, supported by American manufacturers and a trickle of U.S. military and economical aid that was supposed to help the people, but ended up going directly to Duvalier.
Today the average Haitian lives on $2 per day, and 45% of the population are children. Port-au-Prince was an overcrowded city stuffed with shanties and poorly-constructed cement buildings, which collapsed in the earthquake. Hundreds of thousands were killed, injured, and left homeless. The government was disabled, and even the hospitals, schools and police force were mostly destroyed. Haitians are living in tent-cities that are like refugee camps, and many organizations are helping to distribute water, food, and medical care. The USS Comfort, a naval hospital ship, is anchored off Haiti, and doctors and nurses are treating amputees, crushed organs, and broken bones. Aftershocks have caused even more damage and the situation is turning out to be worse than people had predicted.
I believe it is our moral obligation, as citizens of the planet, to help those who are suffering in Haiti. If you don’t want to donate to the Red Cross then please consider donating to other organizations, like Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, or the U.N.

Haiti Earthquake January 12, 2010

Haiti is the small country that occupies the western side of the island of Hispaniola, sharing it with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.
One of the main reasons Haiti is so poor is because of the United States’ involvement in its governmental affairs in the 1950’s. During the cold war the US wanted nations to be on their side against the Soviets and so they interfered a lot with smaller nations struggling with civil wars and/or revolutions. The US had come out of World War II more powerful and prosperous than any other nation and assumed that what had worked so well for them (liberty, equality, democracy), would work and benefit other countries the same way. In 1957 the CIA helped Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier get elected. Duvalier announced himself President for Life and proved to be a vicious dictator whose regime was marked by autocracy, severe corruption, and terrorism by his personal militia, the Tonton Macoutes. An estimated 30,000 were killed and thousands more exiled because of his tendency to use murder and expulsion to suppress his opponents. The Duvalier family continued to rule the country until 1986, funded in part by American manufacturers and US military and economic aid that was supposed to help the people but somehow went directly to Duvalier.
The devastating earthquake on January 12, just a few days ago, struck almost directly in the capital, Port-au-Prince, an overcrowded city stuffed with shanties and badly constructed buildings because of the lack of money for good materials. The city is almost entirely leveled, thousands and thousands lying in the streets dead and more buried under rubble, maybe even alive. Donations to the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders are much needed and appreciated. Here is a link to the New York Times article where more information about the situation is available:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/world/americas/15haiti.html?pagewanted=1&hp">