Remember Haiti

H.O.P.E., a student group I lead at Maple Ridge Secondary School (MRSS), has been working on Free the Children’s Brick by Brick campaign since September 2008, trying to raise $8,500 to build a school in Kenya.

It’s hard work, and often it just feels like our school doesn’t care enough. Imagine the look on my face when I heard that our school raised over $4,000 for Haiti relief in less than a week!

Donations just POURED in from students and their family members and all the Haiti relief fundraisers were met with astonishing success. It was actually a pretty huge deal for me to witness that. And at the risk of sounding like the cheesy narrator of some feel-good movie, it was an opportunity for me to see the compassion, care and generosity people have.

But it also has a bittersweet taste to it, and I can’t help but be slightly apprehensive.

The world has rallied together to support Haiti in a truly moving and inspirational way. And that’s the way it should be – I’m not trying to say anything otherwise. What I simply want to stress is that we can’t live by emergencies. I’ve had several conversations on this topic with my peers, and most of us have agreed the usual trend is that a particular incident will attract the world’s notice and attention, and consequently their help.

But as time passes, people start forgetting about it and the relief efforts also start to dwindle.

Haiti has always been a needy nation – it’s the poorest country in the western hemisphere! I mean, the women in that nation make mud cakes and bake them in the sun to feed their children. It has always been subject to natural disasters. Haiti is going to require constant aid from other nations in order to develop and get to a point where it can sustain itself.

Yet the trend has generally been that a huge flood of aid flows in only after the notable events, but the aid starts to dry up as people begin to think about other things and get on with their lives.

Even my school, which showed such an unexpected spirit of compassion, has now adopted an attitude like, “Oh, the Haiti relief is over.” And no – no, it is not, and it cannot be if we want our help to leave lasting effects on Haiti.

I’m guessing that most people who read this blog will have contributed in some way, shape or form to a Haiti relief effort. And after you’ve exerted yourself, or after that specific fundraiser has ended, it’s so easy to think that, well, it’s over. I did something. No need to think about it anymore…

We showed such amazing solidarity, and we need to keep that spirit alive. Free the Children, for one, will be asking schools all across British Columbia to host a lunchtime activity on Friday, February 19th about Haiti so that students will not simply forget about the tragedy.

Find out what your school will be doing, or even get together with some friends and organize something yourself. Our attention span can’t be short when it comes to people and nations in need. Otherwise Haiti won’t really be able to develop and rid itself of poverty; its people will continue to toil and starve until the next disaster strikes, when the world finally remembers them again.