>> Visit our Facebook page on UC's aid efforts in Haiti

By Donna Hemmila

Dr. Doug Gross (left) of UC Davis and Dr. Ami Ben-Artzi of UCLA have been involved in aid efforts in Haiti.

More than three months after the 7.0 earthquake tore through Haiti, killing more than 300,000 and leaving millions homeless, a group of UC students and faculty have vowed to aid the devastated Caribbean nation in its recovery.

More than 200 students and faculty attended the student-organized UC Haiti Spring Summit on Saturday, April 24. The event, organized by UC Berkeley student Tu Tran, was sponsored by the student associations at Santa Barbara, Berkeley, San Diego and UCLA. Students from every campus turned out for the event. The effort grew out of the initial student-sponsored fundraising efforts on many of the UC campuses in response to the Jan. 12 quake. In addition, dozens of UC doctors and nurses have traveled to Haiti as volunteers with various medical relief organizations.

Now the students want to take this outpouring of assistance forward into a formalized, long-term relationship with the people of Haiti. The goal of the daylong summit at the UCSF Mission Bay campus was to connect UC expertise with the Haitian rebuilding efforts.

"I've committed myself to keeping Haiti in the public consciousness," said UC Davis physician Doug Gross, who served in Haiti immediately following the quake as a member of the Sacramento-area Disaster Medical Assistance Team.

Gross and Ami Ben-Artzi, a UCLA physician who will leave for Haiti in two weeks to volunteer with the International Medical Corps, led the summit session on health care. Other groups addressed economic development (led by UCLA professor Raul Hinojosa), food and agriculture (led by UC Davis professor Steve Temple), education (led by UC Santa Cruz professor Margaret Gibson) and engineering (led by UC Santa Barbara professor Mary Dinh).

By the end of the day, each group had a plan for ways UC students and employees could contribute to the rebuilding. In the coming months, the groups will present formal proposals to the UC administration asking for support to carry out some of their recommendations. The students will take the lead, said Ben-Artzi, with faculty mentoring their efforts.

Tu Tran (left), UC Haiti Spring Summit organizer, with U.N. special envoy Leslie Voltaire

"I was impressed by the students' determination," said Leslie Voltaire, special envoy to the United Nations' Stabilization Mission in Haiti and head of the Haiti Reconstruction Commission's urban planning effort, who attended the summit. "I think UC has a lot of brain power. They have no vested interest like the governments and big NGOs. They are committed to help. I'm very emotional from this. I've seen a lot of compassion. I'm very moved."

During a keynote address, Voltaire shared an ambitious 20-year plan for his country's rebuilding. The plan includes shifting populations outside the overcrowded capital of Port-au-Prince and building new communities in outlying suburbs and new regional hubs, all connected by road systems and fiber optic cables. The economic revival will focus on industrial manufacturing, garment manufacturing, animal husbandry, agriculture and ecotourism, he said.

The summit groups considered ways to aid with both short-term and long-term needs compatible with the Haitian reconstruction plans. Most concluded that they wanted to work with already established nonprofits with a history in Haiti.

"Ideas and visions slowly crystallized into concrete plans," said Ben-Artzi at the conclusion of the summit. "The presence of [special envoy] Voltaire was invaluable in guiding the discussions. His input assured that the proposals are in line with the current government and United Nations plans for reconstruction."

Serving health needs

Laura Stachel demonstrates her solar suitcase, which contains solar panels, walkie-talkies, headlamps and portable lights. Doctors in Haiti have used the kits in the absence of electricity.

The health group agreed to ask the UC administration to make it easier for employees who want to volunteer to get time away from their jobs and for others who can't go to Haiti to donate vacation time to those who do go.

In the long-term, the group would like to work through the Haitian prime minister's office to connect with a city outside Port-au-Prince that has a university branch and hospital and to form a sister city-type relationship. Part of the expertise UC could bring would be training of low- and mid-level care givers in tasks like wound care and chronic disease monitoring who could work in rural settings.

The rebuilding needs are numerous and daunting. Haiti has the lowest literacy rate in the Western Hemisphere and widespread poverty. The earthquake compounded those problems. The quake injured an estimated 400,000, and millions are homeless and living in makeshift tents of tarps, sheets and materials scavenged from the rubble. The Haitian government has the monumental task of providing temporary and permanent housing and caring for a large population physically disabled by quake injuries as well as rebuilding its government, education and social institutions

"It's a crisis of global humanism," said Haitian native Claudine Michel, a director of the UC Santa Barbara Center for Black Studies and editor of the only academic peer-reviewed journal dedicated to Haitian studies.

"We want to revive not the old Haiti, but Haiti as it should be," Michel said.

UC on the ground in Haiti

Michel shared with the summit audience a community development approach to aid for Haiti. She and Gina Bardi, the librarian at UC Berkeley's French Department, serve on the advisory board for Haiti Soleil, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that opened a library in the Carrefour-Feuille neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. The quake destroyed the library and its computer lab, but the organization hopes to rebuild. In the meantime, after neighbors cleared away the debris, the area has become a community gathering spot where people can register missing family and friends and leave children while they search for work or food. This is a model of local-empowering assistance that can be exported to other disadvantaged communities, Michel said.

Lighting the way

Laura Stachel, an obstetrician and UC Berkeley doctoral student, demonstrated the solar suitcase she developed to provide LED lighting to health practitioners in rural areas of Nigeria where there is no electricity. The kits, which cost $800 to $1,000 to produce, contain small, lightweight solar panels, walkie-talkies, headlamps and portable lights. The company she founded, We Care Solar, operates out of her Berkeley home. Stachel has sent seven suitcases to Haiti and leaves Wednesday (April 28) with two more.

Doctors in Haiti have found new ways to deploy the kits, she said, powering electrocardiogram heart monitoring machines and fans to cool the hospital tents where they work. These types of UC innovations can have a big impact in Haiti's recovery, she said.

"I really hope we can push things forward," said conference organizer Tran. His passion for helping the Haitian people, particularly with medical aid, stems from his life experiences.

"I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand," he said. "Two volunteer (medical) residents saved my life and my mother's. So this has been instilled within me."

Helping Haiti will also benefit UC students in remarkable ways, said Kenny Pettersen, a UC San Diego student who spent spring break in March working with the Haiti Endowment Fund in mobile health clinics. In the fall, Pettersen heads to medical school.

"I've been going to Haiti for six years, and it's a major life-changing experience," he said. "It really takes education to another level."

Donna Hemmila is managing editor with the UC Office of the President Integrated Communications. For more information, visit the UC Newsroom or follow us on Twitter.